


Second Time Around

by rivalmagician



Series: Reincarnation Series [1]
Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Background Character Death, Childhood Friends, Childhood Sweethearts, Future Fic, Gen, M/M, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-30
Updated: 2012-12-09
Packaged: 2017-11-19 21:10:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/577689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rivalmagician/pseuds/rivalmagician
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil Coulson and Clint Barton both died before their time. Ten years later Philip and Clint become best friends without a clue of who they used to be. They're just two pre-teen Avenger fanboys who find themselves on SHIELD's radar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phillip Carter and Clint Harrison meet at a very young age without any knowledge about their connection in their previous lives.

Neither of them remembers the first time they met. They were after all about two years old. Phillip is sitting precariously on the swing in the local park, being gently pushed to and fro by his mother, who is briefly distracted by something and turns away. Quietly content by the rocking motion, he doesn’t notice when Clint appears behind him. Clint, a boisterous but good intentioned toddler, gives Phillip a firm shove and knocks him to the soft sand below.

“Mine,” he informs Phillip firmly.

Phillip, of course, bursts into noisy tears which calls the attention of both of the boys’ mothers. Phillip’s mom comforts her boy while Clint’s is mortified and apologises in between scolding her own child. It’s a phase he’s going through, she explains, he’s been so possessive lately. Phillip’s mom understands and assures her that Phillip has his moments.

The relationship doesn’t start off on the right foot, even though neither of them will remember it. But it’s their first meeting none the less, at least the first meeting during their current lifetime.

* * * * *

Eight years later…

Clint Harrison is ten years old and completely unable to concentrate for more than ten minutes, especially on something as boring as old stuff in glass cases. School trips are only good in theory but it’s just learning about stuff he has no interest in in a different place.

He’s wandered off from the group, just enough so he doesn’t have to listen to the teacher but not so much that he won’t be left behind. He can’t explain why but his attention is caught by a boy looking at a collection of ancient pottery in a case.

The first thing Clint notices is that he’s actually reading the little information cards that go with the exhibits. The boy isn’t with Clint’s school party but Clint still sidles up to him to get a look at him. He’s a little taller than Clint is but only by an inch or so, Clint knows he’s short and it’s a pretty sore point but his mom assures him he’ll grow if he eats his vegetables. The other kid is dressed in khaki shorts, sneakers that are old but have obviously been cleaned and a Captain America t-shirt. It’s the t-shirt that really grabs Clint’s attention because Captain America is awesome.

The other kid shoots him a quick glance as Clint stands next to him and pretends to study the exhibit. The kid has a battered notebook and a chewed pencil that he’s using to draw the exhibit. Clint thinks he’s pretty good at drawing.

“You’re good at drawing,” he voices plainly. Clint’s never been one for indirectness; his mom says it’s part of his charm.

“Thanks,” the boy replies quietly.

“Are you on a school trip?” Clint asks because he doesn’t seem to be with any other kids.

“I don’t go to school,” the boy replies, “I’m here with my dad,”

The boy’s first statement is like the most amazing thing Clint has ever heard, “You don’t go to school?” he says incredulously.

“Nope, my dad teaches me at home,” he says like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“I wish I didn’t go to school,” Clint says sulkily, “My name’s Clint,”

The kid looks at him like he’s surprised that Clint’s still talking to him, “I’m Phillip,” he mumbles.

“Cool,” Clint smiles so wide he shows the gap in his teeth where he lost a canine last week in exchange for a dollar. He knows the tooth fairy isn’t real, but the money’s still nice to have, “I like your shirt,” he says.

Phillip looks down at the Captain America shield emblazoned across his chest, “Thanks,” he says, “My mom got it for me for my birthday,”

“I like Iron Man,” Clint tells him, “I have an Iron Man pencil case, an Iron Man action figure, an Iron Man lunchbox and…oh, Iron Man bed sheets,” he lists.

Phillip doesn’t look at him like he’s a nerd, like his stupid sisters. He just smiles, “My dad bought me all the old Captain America comics, from before he was in the ice,”

“The Avengers are awesome,” Clint concludes and Phillip seems to agree.

“I have to finish,” Phillip says, about his drawing, “When I do, my dad’s taking me to the comic book store,” he says happily.

“OK,” Clint says, nodding, “I have to get back to my class,” he says rolling his eyes in the direction of the noisy bunch of students being herded towards another exhibit, “Bye,” he says, sad that their new friendship is ending so abruptly.

Later on, as Clint is eating his packed lunch with his classmates on the steps of the museum, Phillip exits the museum with his notebook under one arm and holding the hand of a bearded, older man who must be his father. As he passes Clint he drops a piece of paper into his lap with a smile but not another word. Clint puts down his box of crackers to look at the piece of paper. It’s folded in half with an incredibly detailed and pretty cool picture of Iron Man on the front but inside it has an address and phone number written out in neat hand writing.

* * * * *

Clint’s mom is a little suspicious when he tells her about the new friend he made at the museum and takes it upon herself to remind him of stranger danger. But Clint didn’t think stranger danger counted when the stranger was another kid. So, that weekend, Clint’s mom calls up the number Phillip gave him and has an overly long talk with Philip’s dad. She laughs a lot and they talk for a long time, so Clint thinks things are going well and he’s right because she comes off the phone with a play date at Phillip’s house organised for the next weekend.

Clint can barely manage another week at school. He’s on his best behaviour because he really doesn’t want his mom to change his mind about going round to Phillip’s house. The week moves slowly but Saturday comes soon enough and he soon finds himself knocking on the door of Phillip apartment wearing his least ragged jeans and a t-shirt that his mom insisted on taking off him and ironing. He has his Iron Man action figure in one hand and a batch of cookies that his mom made in the other. Clint doesn’t get many play dates so his mom is trying to make a good impression.

Phillip and his family live in a nice brownstone building in a second floor apartment. Clint’s family doesn’t exactly live in squalor but their house has seen better days and between Clint and his two sisters the place is always a tip. Clint knocks smartly on the door and shuffles around nervously as he waits for the door to open.

The man he saw at the museum, Phillip’s dad, opens up, “Hello there,” he says with a smile, “You must be Clint,”

Clint gives him his best school picture smile and holds out the cookies, “My mum made these,” he says by way of a hello.

Mr Carter takes the cookies and invites him in. He’s older than Clint’s dad and much more smartly dressed. Clint’s dad mostly just walks around in his boxers during the day; he works the night shift so he’s normally sleepy and kind of cranky. Mr Carter leads him into the nicely furnished apartment, everything is nice and Clint’s normally responsible for breaking nice things so he’s nervous.

“Phillip,” Mr Carter calls out, “Clint’s here,”

There’s a slight tapping of feet before Phillip slides into view across the hardwood floor in his socks. He’s bright eyed and doesn’t look as nervous as he did in the museum. He’s wearing the same shorts again and a freshly pressed polo shirt.

“Hey,” he says happily.

The pair of them just stares at each other and smile for a long time. Clint can’t explain what he’s feeling but it’s like he’s seeing Phillip after years and years of missing him, but that’s dumb because they only just met last week.

Mr Carter breaks the silence by telling Phillip to show Clint his room. Philip’s face brightens and he leads the way out of the living area and down the corridor to his room.

Clint is immediately jealous of everything Phillip owns. He has a bunk bed, one with a sofa bed underneath that’s strewn with several soft toys including a well-worn rabbit and a teddy bear dressed as Captain America. There’s a large, neatly organised desk with rainbow selection of felt tips, coloured pencils and crayons as well as other art supplies. He also has a computer, Clint has to share one with his whole family and because he’s the youngest he never gets a go. A wardrobe and a selection of boxes of toys take up one side of the room, which in Clint’s are usually strewn across the floor. His room is painted blue and any free wall space is taken up by posters of either Captain America or one of the other Avengers. There’s also a fish tank full of clownfish which Clint makes a beeline for.

“That one’s Fred, that one’s Velma, that one’s Daphne, that one’s Scooby Doo,” Phillip says pointing out various fish that all look the same to Clint, “Shaggy died,” he says solemnly before noticing Clint’s Iron Man action figure.

Phillip leaps up to his bunk bed and jumps back down quickly with his own Captain American figure, “Let’s play,” he says happily.

They spend the next few hours sending Cap and Iron Man on various missions, defending Lego buildings from alien attack, rescuing Phillip’s beloved stuffed rabbit Timmy from Red Skull and discussing who would win in a fight between Captain America and Iron Man before ultimately deciding that they wouldn’t fight because they’re best friends.

Mr Carter interrupts with lunch; chicken salad sandwiches, orange segments, apple juice and some of the cookies that Clint brought. He tells Clint to call him Graham, Clint says he will but doesn’t think he’ll actually have the courage to do so.

As they eat their lunch, Clint frowns slightly and asks where Phillip’s mom is. When Clint or his sisters have people around it’s usually his mom who provides the refreshments.

“She’s at work,” Phillip says with a sigh and a shrug, “She’s a lawyer. She sends people to prison when they do bad things,” he explains, “She says she met Tony Stark years ago when he peed outside a doughnut shop,”

Clint can’t fathom why anyone would pee outside a doughnut shop, “My mom works at JC Penny and my dad drives a train,”

Phillip face lights up, “Cool,” he says with obvious jealousy, “My dad just teaches me and writes all day,” Phillip explains that his dad writes books about history and that he even wrote one about Captain America, which kind of explains Phillip’s obsession.

After lunch Phillip gets out his train set and Captain America has to save Iron Man when Red Skull ties him to the railway tracks.

Clint thinks he’s found his best friend ever.

* * * * *

When his Phillip’s mom gets home from work he gives her a blow by blow account of everything he did with his new best friend and she honestly looks like she’s about to cry. She hugs Phillip tightly and tells his dad tearfully, “I told you Graham, I told you he could do it,”

Phillip has noticed that his parents always seem to be talking about whether Phillip is well socialised enough, whether he is keeping up with the other kids at schoolwork, whether Phillip is normal. His mom likes to read books about being a good parents and his dad keeps saying things like, “Phillip is at the level that Phillip feels comfortable with,”

Phillip wasn’t aware that he wasn’t normal. He knows most kids go to school but he likes staying at home with his dad. They go places together; they do Phillip’s math work in the park, they learn about history in museums and he’s allowed to draw whatever and whenever he wants.

Its two weeks before they receive a return invite from Clint through his mom. She invites Phillip to sleepover on Friday and Phillip jumps around the kitchen excitedly as his dad makes the arrangements. It’s his first sleepover, his first night away from his parents. His mom freaks out, actually calling a contact in the police department to run a background check on the Harrisons, but she eventually calms down enough to buy him a new sleeping bag and a batch of cupcakes to bring in return for the cookies. District Attorney Linda Carter doesn’t bake.

Phillip’s dad drops him round Clint’s house at about four thirty that Friday. Clint has a house instead of an apartment and even a garden; Phillip’s parents just have a herb garden on the window sill. It takes a long time for someone to answer the door after he knocks but when the door finally opens two older girls Phillip assumes are Clint’s sisters open the door, dart out and head off giggling and gossiping down the street.

Phillip deliberates as to whether he should enter the house when he hears Clint’s voice bellowing from inside the house, telling him to come upstairs. Phillip enters the house and heads up the stairs to where he thought he heard Clint’s voice coming from.

Clint’s room is a little smaller than Phillip’s, littered with toys and clothes but still somehow welcoming. Clint is standing in the middle of the chaos bare foot and struggling to get into a t-shirt, his hair wet and sticking up obviously fresh from a shower.

“Hi Clint,” Phillip says, dropping his overnight bag in the corner of the room.

Clint’s head emerges from his t-shirt with a bright smile, “Sorry, I had gymnastics and mom said I had to have a shower,”

“You do gymnastics?” Phillip asks, “Cool,”

Phillip’s had only a passing encounter with sports and physical education; he was on a softball team for a while but that just ended in disaster. He parents gave up on team sports so now he just goes swimming once a week and learns judo from his dad.

They fall back into playing with their action figures again and Clint explains that his sisters were going out with some boys, his mom’s at work and his dad’s asleep. They eat the cupcakes themselves and discuss exactly how stretchy the Hulk’s pants have to be for them not to rip whenever he transforms.

Later on that night Clint’s dad wakes up enough to order pizza and they eat it in the dark while watching a whole array of action movies that Phillip’s parents would never let him watch. They fall asleep on Clint’s bedroom floor, both of them in their sleeping bags.

* * * * *

It doesn’t take long for the weekend play date to become routine. One Saturday several weeks later they’re lying on Phillip’s bedroom floor drawing when Clint suddenly announces, “I’m adopted, y’know,”

Phillip looks up at him, tilting his head to one side with a characteristic frown that he gets when he’s confused, “Me too,”

Clint’s face breaks out into a smile, “Seriously?” he asks, “That’s weird,”

Phillip agrees but goes back to his drawing. It was never a secret in Phillip’s house about where he came from and Phillip’s never felt different in anyway. It hardly ever seems worth mentioning it.  
But Phillip’s never met another kid who was adopted. He shrugs it off because a lot of things about Clint seem to be based around strange coincidences; the fact that they even met in the museum, that Phillip saw him again to give him his number, the strange feeling that Phillip has that he’s known Clint for longer than he’s been alive.

It’s weird, but not in a bad way.

* * * * *

It makes Clint sad sometimes that he is Phillip’s only friend. Clint goes to school during the week and has a whole group of friends that he hangs out with but Phillip is home schooled, which is weird because his parents are perfectly normal, not creepily religious or anything. Sometimes when something funny happens in school, like when Ryan Bellamy burped really loudly during their science quiz, Clint wishes that Phillip was there so they could laugh together.

Instead they spend their weekends together. Sometimes they go swimming, or to the movies, or Phillip’s dad will take them to a museum. But when the weekend end Clint goes back to school and a different group of friends while Phillip stays at home to learn from his dad.

This particular weekend Philip is out of town with his mom and dad on a trip to Washington DC where Phillip’s dad is delivering some kind of lecture. Clint was pretty miserable until he got invited to play soccer in the park with his school friends. It’s a nice day and fairly soon, after running around after the ball, Clint gets thirsty. He goes away from the group to the water fountain and slurps noisily from the tap. When he straightens up to wipe his mouth on the back of his hand he’s embarrassed to see a lady watching him closely from the bench next to the fountain. He could have sworn that nobody was sitting there before.

The lady is incredibly pretty and strangely familiar. She has a round but serious face with the deepest red hair Clint has ever seen and she’s staring at Clint intently.

“What’s your name?” she asks straight forwardly.

Clint is immediately reminded of his mom’s frequent stranger danger talks, but doesn’t that just count with creepy men offering candy from vans? “Clint,” he offers awkwardly.

“How old are you?” she continues, her stare getting even harder so that Clint feels like he couldn’t not answer even if he tried.

“Eleven,” he replied nervously.

The lady seems to realise that she’s freaking him out a bit, “Sorry,” she says, “You just remind me of an old friend,” she explains.

Clint doesn’t see how this is possible unless her old friend was another eleven year old boy but he shrugs and goes back to his game. The lady watches for a little while longer before disappearing again.

Clint keeps thinking of Budapest, but he doesn’t know why.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint realises something but inadvertently upsets Philip. Before he can apologise both of their lives are changed forever as Philip meets his hero on the worst day of his life.

It’s about a week after Christmas and Phillip and Clint are playing in the park. There’s been about two feet of snow and they’re running about embroiled in a vicious snowball fight with some other kids they don’t know. They’re winning though because Clint has freakishly good aim and Phillip has an excellent battle strategy. 

After a while the other kids get bored and cold and wander off. Phillip takes this as a victory for them as they survey the now empty park and there freshly gained territory. It’s getting darker but New York is hardly ever actually dark. Both of them are staring up at the thousands of lights coming from Avengers Tower, hoping to catch a glimpse of their heroes.

Watching Avengers Tower is a favourite pastime of theirs even though real New Yorkers are just supposed to act like they don’t see the myriad of heroes that call the city home. Only tourists go superhero spotting. Neither of them have been lucky enough to see anything exciting as of yet but they won’t stop looking. Clint’s even brought the binoculars he got from his dad for Christmas. 

“Can you see anything,” Phillip asks, admiring the way his breath comes out as a puff of condensation. 

Clint hums noncommittally before handing over the binoculars, “Look up there,” he says pointing to the landing pad, “I think I can see people,”

Even with the binoculars Phillip can’t really see more than some tiny blurs, but Clint sees things really well from a distance. He can just about see some tiny people moving about when there a sudden flash of light appears and Iron Man takes off into the sky.

Clint’s jaw drops open as Iron Man soars over the park, flying low another for them to see the suit in detail. Phil lowers the binoculars in time to see the quinjet taking off and following after Iron Man, it’s so close that he can feel a gust of hot air from the craft’s engines. 

Both of them stare after the Avengers long after they’ve disappear into the night.

“That was the best thing ever,” Clint says finally.

“Where do you think they’re going?” Phillip says, they’ve both lived in New York long enough to appreciate that it’s cool to see the Avengers but it also means that something bad is probably going down. 

“I don’t know,” Clint replies, “If I was a superhero what do you think my power would be?”

Phillip thinks for a moment. Clint’s good at a lot of random things; he can burp the alphabet, backflip five times in a row, hang upside down for five minutes and thirteen seconds according to the last time they timed him and pretty much win every carnival game that ever existed which was something Phillip learned when his parents took them and Clint managed to win him six goldfish to replace the Scooby Gang who all unfortunately died. 

“You’re pretty much already a super ninja,” Phillip tells Clint eventually, “What about me?”

“Nah,” Clint shrugs, “You’re awesome enough already, you don’t need superpowers,”

* * * * * 

Clint and Phillip don’t play Captain America and Iron Man anymore; they’re thirteen now, in fact Phillip’s nearly fourteen. Instead they roam the city together; hanging out in comic book stores, going to the movies, doing whatever takes their fancy. They’re growing up now. 

One night Clint’s lying in bed, just about ready to fall asleep, when he hears his parents talking. Nobody in his house seems to realise that voices carry and the walls are pretty thin. 

“So Clint really likes this Phil kid,” his dad says awkwardly. Clint automatically tenses up because Phillip really hates being called Phil.

“Well yes,” his mom replies breezily, “They’ve been friends for a long time,”

“No, Mary,” his dad continues, “I think that Clint might really like this kid,” he says placing a lot of emphasis on the word ‘really’.

“Oh,” his mom replies sounding surprised, “I never really thought about it. Do you really think? They do spend a lot of time together,”

It suddenly dawns on Clint what his parents are talking about and his face turns bright red. He’s never really thought about whether or not he likes Phillip that way or not. In fact, he’s never really thought about anyone that way. Clint’s had his crushes, for some reason he immediately but briefly falls in love with every red headed girl he’s ever met. He went to a school dance with Rosie McGilligan because she has the most beautiful curly red hair he’s ever seen, but she was boring and she thinks the Fantastic Four are better than the Avengers. They didn’t repeat the occasion, and looking back on it Clint remembers how much he wished that Phillip could’ve come to the dance with him instead. 

“It’s the way he looks at him,” Clint’s dad continues, “He hangs off his every word, I think he loves him,”

Clint’s mom chuckles, “Oh Dan, I didn’t know you were such a romantic at heart,” 

Clint blushes even more because he can only assume that the following gap in the conversation is caused by his parents kissing. Gross.

“Do you think we should talk to him about it?” Mary asks, “Do you think he knows it’s alright?” 

“I’m sure he does,” his dad says, “And anyway, Clint’s a pretty headstrong kid. He does what he wants,”

They stop talking about him and turn to the topic of the broken downstairs toilet. Clint lies in bed for a long time afterwards, thinking about what they were saying. Phillip is his best friend, undoubtedly. But does he find him attractive? He has a really nice smile, that’s made even nicer by how rare it can be. Clint can spend whole weekends just trying to make Phillip smile. He’s still taller than Clint is, and still growing, and muscled in from the awesome martial arts he does. He’s also really smart, much smarter than Clint is. He knows lots about history, he can do really hard math and can draw really well. He’s clever but he never makes Clint feel dumb. 

When he really thinks about it, it’s actually incredibly obvious. His dad’s write, he probably does love Phillip.

He’ll talk to him about it this weekend. 

* * * * * 

Phillip’s never thought he’s missed out on not going to school. He’s a perfectly normal kid; he has friends (well, he has Clint), he’s probably ahead of other kids his age and he pretty much gets to learn what he wants. He never really though he missed out until he saw Clint with his other friends. Phillip knew that he had to have friends other than him. He spends the week in school and he sometimes tells Phillip about the people in his class and the people at his gymnastics club. But Phillip always assumed that he was Clint’s best friend because Clint is his. 

He’s out clothes shopping with his mom at the mall, which is always absolutely mortifying, when he sees Clint and a group of other kids in the food court. He’s just about to wave when he sees Clint look up at him before quickly looking away, obviously ignoring him. Which is fine, Phillip guesses, he’s with his other friends. His other friends that Phillip’s never been introduced to. He never wondered about that before, but he supposes Clint doesn’t want his home schooled, nerdy friends hanging out with the people he goes to school with. 

“Oh look, it’s Clint,” his mom says, noticing where he’s looking, “Why don’t you go say hello?”

“No,” Phillip snaps, he’s been in a bad mood all day, shopping does that to him, “He’s with his other friends,”

“I’m sure he won’t mind,” his mom says earnestly.

“He will,” Phillip says sulkily, “Let’s just go,”

They continue shopping and Phillip’s temper gets worse throughout the day. It culminates in them both arriving back home in stony silence.

“What’s wrong?” his dad asks as Phillip heads straight towards his room.

“Phillip’s in a bad mood,” his mom answers for him, “Which is perfectly normal…” she begins reciting something that she’s read in her latest parenting book.

“You can’t just read a book and know how I’m feeling!” Phillip yells. He actually yells, shocking his parents and scaring himself. Phillip doesn’t yell, Phillip is quietly spoken with a handle on his emotions, or so he thought. 

He rolls his eyes and heads out of the door, slamming it behind him before his mom can say anything else about normal teenage behaviour. 

* * * * *

Clint feels stupid. Clint is stupid. 

He totally blanked Phillip at the mall which is just dumb because he promised himself that the next time he saw him he’d talk to him about the revelation he had. He’d planned it really well; he was going round to his place at the weekend because Phillip’s parents were taking them out for his birthday. They were going out to some posh restaurant so Clint was going to iron a shirt and borrow one of his dad’s ties. And Clint was going to give Phillip his birthday present and ask if he wanted to go out with him properly. 

But then he saw him at the mall and freaked out because he wasn’t ready. He was with his stupid school friends; Ryan was trying to drink his body weight in soda, Carlos had an app on his StarkPhone that made farting noises and they are generally being kind of disgusting and embarrassing. Phillip didn’t need to meet them because then he would think that Clint was disgusting and embarrassing.   
So he pretended like he didn’t see him, badly of course, and in the process probably really hurt Phillip’s feelings. But it was alright because Clint had bought him an awesome birthday present. Phillip had a pretty much everything related to Captain America but he didn’t have this; an original trading card from way back in the 1940s. Clint used nearly all his savings but still didn’t have enough, but his dad gave him some money with a knowing smile, and he bought the card from a trader on the internet. Apparently it was part of some dead guy’s incomplete collection.

So Phillip probably feels bad now but Clint’s going to make it up to him on the weekend.

* * * * *

Phillip goes to the place he normally goes when he wants to feel better, the comic book store. He flicks through a few of the latest issues but doesn’t have the money to buy anything before calming down enough to realise how horribly childish he acted. He grudgingly makes his way home, prepared to apologise to his parents for shouting. 

It’s a little cold and he left without his jacket so he makes his way home with his hands pulled up into his sweater. He doesn’t really pay attention as he steps out of the elevator but soon snaps out of it when he realises that the front door is open. They never leave the front door open, it’s New York nobody leaves their front door open.

“Mom, Dad?” he calls out, they’re probably just about to step out, they’re probably going to look for him. There’s no answer though. 

He pushes open the door and doesn’t understand. The rational part of his brain seems to comprehend that his parents are dead, that somebody has killed his parents, but another part of his brain just doesn’t understand because he was just talking to them an hour ago. They’re lying on the floor, his dad is still by his desk with the computer still on and his mom is closer to the door, she’s wearing her jacket so she must have been going out to look for him. There’s a lot of blood which makes Phillip feel sick because he gets queasy when he scraps his knee. 

He steps into the apartment and drops to his knees, “Mom,” he says, shaking her shoulder and trying to wake her up even though he knows, “Mom,” he continues, there’s blood on his hands now, “Mommy,” he’s crying now, like a baby, because he wants his mom. 

He barely moves when he hears someone in the apartment, the people who did this are still here but Phillip can’t move for fear. He looks up to see two men emerging from his bedroom, dressed in black and with hidden faces, and he can’t move to run, to save himself and he’s not really sure he wants to. 

Someone else appears in the doorway behind him and Phillip turns around to see who else has arrived. It’s from then onwards that he can say that they day he met Captain America was the worst day of his life. 

* * * * * 

Phillip J. Coulson dies in 2012, one of the many deaths that occur during Loki attempt to enslave the Earth. His death brings the team known as the Avengers together but breaks the heart of Clinton Francis Barton, SHIELD agent and man who decided to make his move too late. 

One of the last things Clint remembers before being put under Loki’s spell was that today was supposed to be the day he talked to Phil. Today was supposed to be the day he confessed his feelings in a horribly sickeningly romantic way because Phil made Clint want to stand outside in the rain with a stereo on his shoulder. 

He never got his chance because Phil died.

A few months later Agent Clint Barton is declared missing in action after a disastrous operation in Columbia. The same people who attended Phil’s funeral attend Clint’s and for the first time in a long time Natasha Romanov cries.

The public still talks about Hawkeye as the Avenger who never was; the guy with a bow and arrow who saved people during the Battle of Manhattan but was never seen again. 

Normally this would be the tragic but ultimately true to life end of the story. But the universe isn’t just about life and death. Sometimes it’s about rebirth. 

The power of the Tesseract is unparalleled and just a small portion of that power was redirected and contained within Loki’s spear; the spear which came into contact with both Phil Coulson and Clint Barton. So upon both of their deaths something strange occurs and the process starts again. Phil and Clint start life again to do what they were put on Earth to do…meet and fall in love, as well as save the world several times while doing so.

SHIELD, of course, doesn’t know this. They’re just confronted with the reincarnated forms of their former agents being brought back from Asgard where they were suddenly created by the Tesseract. Once they are found not to be part of some kind of alien plot, both of the children are put up for adoption and secured good homes.

Phillip Carter is given a home with Linda and Graham, who found themselves unable to have children and were desperately seeking to complete their family.

Clinton Harrison is adopted by Mary and Daniel who after the difficult birth of their last daughter are told that it would be dangerous to Mary’s health to carry another child.

SHIELD keeps tabs on them and their existence is classified Level Nine clearance.

Level Nine clearance means nothing to Tony Stark.

So the only people aware of Phil and Clint’s existence are the people of Asgard, certain select members of the SHIELD and the Avengers.

That is until the attack and security breach on the helicarrier that leads to the theft of certain classified material. Coincidentally, it is also the mission that two boys in the park saw the Avengers leaving for. 

It’s not long before the bad guys of the world are made aware that a certain deceased SHIELD agent is in fact alive and in a vulnerable state which could lead to the extraction of a lot of beneficial information that could lead to the downfall of the only organisation between the world and complete chaos. 

* * * * * 

Steve arrives too late. When he gets there Linda and Graham Carter are already dead and the boy is crying over the bodies of his only family. He looks up at Steve with tearful eyes and a peculiar look of recognition on his face. Steve’s not in his Captain America uniform but he’s become familiar enough in the media for people to recognise him even when he’s just dressed as himself. 

The HYDRA agents are still there but they’re not leaving. Steve steps into the apartment and despatches the two easily. He doesn’t carry a gun, he doesn’t need to. He simply grabs the wrist of the first, snaps it back and lands a punch to the head that the guy won’t be getting up from. The second is more timid and easier to lay out, Steve grabs him by the shirt and throws him into the wall, making sure that he slithers unconscious to the floor. 

Phillip is watching him in terrified confusion. Steve edges towards him, in order to try and comfort him, but Phillip launches backwards, his mother’s blood on his hands and knees.

“Who are you?” he stutters, the tears still falling.

“You know me Phil,” he says, “I’m Captain America,” he tells him, deciding that Phillip is more likely to listen to his hero than just Steve. He goes to him and puts a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Phillip just throws up on his shoes.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint gets some terrible news but refuses to believe it. The Avengers try to make Phillip feel welcome at the Tower but he's having none of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went back and did a little clean up on chapters one and two. Thank you for all your comments by the way. I've been working all weekend and they've really cheered me up.

“Mom, its Saturday,” Clint mumbles into his pillow, “Why are you waking me up so early,” he says trying to shake off the hand on his shoulder.

“Clint, honey,” his mom continues, “You have to wake up,”

Her voice sounds so shaky that Clint snaps awake. He’s learnt to recognise that that voice only signals bad things; like his granddad’s dead, his sister’s got appendicitis or his dad’s lost his job. Clint’s even more appalled to see that his mom’s crying and his dad is standing awkwardly in the doorway looking like he might as well. 

“Mom, what’s wrong?” he asks, not wanting to hear the answer because he just knows it’s bad.

His mom takes a shaky breath before continuing, “It’s the Carters,” she says, “Someone broke into their house last night, they think it was someone that Linda prosecuted,” she explains sobbing as she speaks, “I’m sorry but Phillip has died, honey,”

At first Clint doesn’t believe her, but why would she lie? He looks from her to his dad who is freely crying now and then it sinks in. And it hurts. God, it hurts, there’s actual physical pain in his chest because Philip’s dead. Clint lets out a noise like a dying animal, a wail followed by gasping sobs. He buries his face in his mom’s shoulder and shuts his eyes tight, pretending this isn’t happening because today is Philip’s birthday and he was supposed to give him his present. His dad joins them on the bed, hugging him tightly. 

He hears his sisters come running because by now his crying must be making a lot of noise. They stand back when they see what’s going on because Clint never cries unless something is really wrong. 

Something is really wrong and it doesn’t feel like it will ever be right again. 

* * * * * 

Captain America practically has to drag Phillip from the apartment. He’s really nice about the whole throwing up on his shoes thing but Phillip’s too out of it to notice. He doesn’t really pay attention to how they get there but the next thing Phillip knows that he’s actually in Avengers Tower. He feels like he’s going to be sick again. 

The Captain gets them past the security without another word and leads him into an elevator which talks to them, “Captain Rogers, I see you have a guest,” it says, making him jump.

“It’s OK,” the Captain reassures him, “It’s just JARVIS. Uh…yes I do,”

“Running biometric scan,” the voice says and a red beam descends down the elevator, “Scan complete,” the voice concludes, “Guest Phillip Coulson,” 

“That’s not my name,” Phillip says quietly, his voice makes the Captain jump because he hasn’t managed to say a word to him since they left Phillip’s apartment. 

“It’s just a mistake,” the Captain assures him, but Phillip can tell he’s lying. 

The elevator doors open onto a wide, open space. It doesn’t look like the Avengers headquarters; just someone’s really nice living area. It occurs to Phillip that the building is owned by Tony Stark who is known for his elaborate sense of style. 

The Captain sits him down on one of the large couches that are gathered around the biggest television Phillip has ever seen. He pats Phillip’s shoulders comfortingly again, “It’s OK Phil, you’re safe here,” he assures him. Phillip doesn’t really have the heart to tell him that he just hates being called Phil. 

They are joined by a red headed woman who is occasionally seen with the Avengers but nobody knows anything about her. She looks at him like she’s seen a ghost but quickly schools her face into an impassive mask, “You didn’t get there in time,” she says simply; the Captain simply shakes his head. 

Not long after the room gets very busy. Dr Bruce Banner appears and begins a whispered conversation with the Captain and the woman who appears to be called Natasha. Tony Stark arrives next followed by a woman Phillip remembers seeing standing behind him and rolling her eyes at press conferences. She immediately comes over to Phillip and sits down next to him. 

“Hi Phil,” she smiles at him softly, “My name’s Pepper. I’m so sorry about what’s happened to you,” she says taking in his blood stained jeans, “We should find you some new clothes,”

“I don’t understand,” Phillip says weakly, “I don’t understand what’s happening,”

Pepper shoots an anxious look to where the Avengers are conversing in whispers, “I know, but I promise they’re going to explain,”

She puts her arm around him and rubs his back gently as he keeps letting out hitching sobs. She’s nice, and she’s pretty and she smells like expensive perfume. Phillip has a weird, half memory of doing brunch. 

Eventually, Phillip’s heroes turn around to face him. Dr Banner speaks first, he had a quiet but calming way about him that puts him at ease a little, “Phil,” he says, “We’re very sorry about your parents,” he tells him sincerely, “but it’s quite a complicated situation,”

Tony Stark makes a half snort of appreciation, “You’re not exactly going to believe us,”

Phillip flashes back to the time his mom told him about prosecuting Stark for public urination and he starts crying again. Stark looks stricken and Pepper slaps him across the knee. 

“Sorry,” Phillip apologises tearfully. 

“Don’t apologise,” Stark tells him firmly, “You’ve got every right to cry Phil,”

And Phillip does, a lot, because what they tell him is stranger than he ever could have imagined. He’s the reincarnation of some guy who died during that big alien invasion that happened years ago. He was some kind of secret agent who knew lots of things which is why those guys came after his family because they were looking for him.

“So, it’s my fault,” Phillip says, once they finish explaining. 

Captain Rogers actually looks a bit angry at this statement, “No, don’t you ever think that,” he tells him, “SHIELD was supposed to protect you, we were supposed to protect you,” he runs his hand through his hair. 

“What happens now?” Phillip asks. He’s stopped crying now and he’s stopped being scared; now he just wants to know what’s going to happen to him. 

“You’re going to stay with us,” Stark says bluntly, “If that’s alright with you,”

Phillip guesses he doesn’t have much choice.

He wonders when he’ll be allowed to call Clint.

* * * * *

Clint’s been a ghost since Phillip died. It’s been a week of walking around in a daze, the only bright spots being when he forgets that Phillip is dead. His parents are worried sick about him, his teachers keep asking if he wants to talk and even his sisters have stopped teasing him. 

Its two weeks until Clint finally decides that he has to go to Phillip’s apartment; he has to see where he died. So on Monday morning, Clint acts like he’s heading off to school but instead follows the familiar route to Phillip’s home. The police investigation has mostly cleared up; the favourite theory is that Phillip’s mom, who was some kind of big shot lawyer, made an enemy of the wrong person who came back for revenge. 

Clint gets his way in easily because he’s pretty good at making himself unnoticed and stand outside Phillip’s front door for a long time. He remembers the first time he came round to play, more than three years ago, and has to blink back the tears. 

He’s just about to break open the police tape and push open the broken door when the apartment door opposite swings open. Clint yelps in surprise.

“Clinton!” Mrs Sandusky, the Carter’s elderly neighbour, barks at him, “What on Earth do you think you’re doing?” 

Mrs Sandusky has lived across the hallway for years and she likes to spy on the comings and goings of everyone in the building. 

“Nothing ma’am,” Clint says, trying to sound innocent, “I just had to come here,” he tells her hopelessly. 

She looks like she’s going to tell him off again but surprisingly her face softens and she opens up the door to her own apartment, “Come in,” she tell him.

Clint feels like he doesn’t have a choice.

* * * * * 

Every morning, when Phillip wakes up, he forgets where he is. His sleep confused brain can remain oblivious to the fact that he’s not underneath his worn Captain America bed sheets for quite some time. He is, instead, taking up a small part of a king sized bed underneath a thick duvet in one of Tony Stark’s spare rooms in the Avengers Tower. When it all finally comes crashing down on him, it makes it very hard to even consider getting out of bed. 

He’s been at the Tower for about a week and he’s spent most of the time hiding in his room. He barely speaks to anyone, has to be cajoled into eating with the others and just really can’t fathom doing anything but hiding under his duvet. 

There’s a gentle tap at his door and Dr Banner pokes his head in, “Morning Phil,” he says quietly. Phillip hears him makes his way towards the bed, “I made you some tea,” 

Phillip hears the gentle clink of a mug being placed on his bedside table. Dr Banner stays standing by his bedside, Phillip can hear him wringing his hands which he guesses is something Dr Banner does when he’s uncomfortable. 

“There’s breakfast,” he says eventually, “Steve’s made pancakes. I don’t know if you like tea or not. Do you drink coffee?” Phillip doesn’t answer, “OK then,” Dr Banner doesn’t seem offended by his silence, “I was going to do a yoga session later on, maybe some meditation. Would you like to join in?” 

Phillip really doesn’t have it in him to even think about doing yoga, “No, thank you,” he says quietly.

“That’s fine,” Bruce assures him, “But you should really have some breakfast,”

Phillip thinks that he must have drifted off to sleep because when he wakes up someone is placing something else on his bedside table, “I brought you some pancakes,” 

It’s Captain Rogers. Captain Freaking America is bringing him pancakes and Phillip can’t even poke his head out from under the covers. 

“They’re kind of cold,” he explains, “but they’re still good. Can you please eat them?” he asks sincerely, “You didn’t have dinner last night. You must be hungry,”

He sounds so worried that Phillip thinks he might cry. His hero is worried about him and all he wants him to do is eat some pancakes. Phillip sighs and pulls back the covers slightly, making the Captain beam. 

“Morning,” he says, “Well, it’s actually closer to afternoon,”

There’s a plate of pancakes sitting on the bedside table, complete with a selection of fruit. Phillip tucks in, the pancakes are good.

“Thank you, Captain,” Phillip mumbles.

“Call me Steve,” the Captain smiles as he leaves his room.

Phillip thinks he might throw up. He wonders if that’s just an associated reaction to being around Captain America now. 

He finishes the pancakes but burrows back into the covers. After a while the door opens again and Tony Stark blusters into the room.

“Hey,” he says loudly, “Still in bed? I like your style,”

Stark sits himself down on the edge of his bed and begins making a lot of noise. Phillip looks out from his burrow in curiosity. Stark is going through an armful of shopping bags, examining an array of clothes and shoes. 

“Pepper went on a bit of a shopping spree for you,” Stark explains, “She didn’t know what you liked so I think she bought everything,”

Stark opens a shoe box and pulls out a pair of red, white and blue Captain America sneakers. Phillip had asked for a pair for his birthday and he was fairly certain he saw his mom stashing a shoebox in the back of her cupboard, her signature hiding place for all presents.

“These are pretty cool,” Stark says examining the shoes, “I want a pair,” he holds them out to Phillip in want he can only interpret as a sincere offer of friendship, “So, you feel like getting dressed?”

Phillip supposes if they went to the trouble of buying him such nice clothes that he should probably get dressed. He pushes back the covers and gets up with a groan.

“There we go,” Tony cheers, he retreats to the door as Phillip begins sorting through the piles of brand new clothes but stops before leaving, “You know, I cried like baby when my folks died. Spent a month is bed, drunk, and I didn’t even like them that much,”

Phillip grunts in response.

“OK,” Tony says with a shrug, “When you’re dressed, you can come down to the lab and take a look down if you want,”

Phillip grunts again but puts on a blue short sleeved button down shirt that costs more than any piece of clothing he’s ever owned, a pair of branded jeans and the Captain America sneakers, which are pretty cool.

* * * * * 

Mrs Sandusky makes Clint drink tea from a teacup and plies him with macaroons that turn to dust in his mouth. They sit in her incredibly chintzy living room in silence for a long time before she speaks abruptly.

“It’s terrible, what happened,” she says shaking her head.

Clint thinks that he’s staring so hard at his teacup that it might spontaneously combust, “Yeah, I know,” he mumbles.

“They said in the news that it was someone Mrs Carter prosecuted,” Mrs Sandusky continues but she doesn’t need to tell Clint. He’s watched every news report available about the Carters’ deaths, it’s gotten to the point that his mother is refusing to let him watch television anymore, “That’s what they said, but it’s a cover up,”

Clint looks up with a frown, “What do you mean?”

“I heard everything,” she continues, “I was the one who called the police. I was too frightened to leave my apartment of course,” she explains, “I’m an old lady, what could I do to help?”

“What do you mean a cover up?” Clint demands.

“I mean that the last time I saw young Phillip, he was being carried out of the apartment by some big, blonde guy,” she says, “But that didn’t make the official report because some suit came around and made me sign some kind of national security thing…”

“You mean Phillip’s not dead?” he leaps to his feet and the teacup drops from his fingers and clinks to the floor, “But where is he? Who took him?”

“I don’t know,” Mrs Sandusky cries, she tuts at the shattered teacup, “But this suit was from something Strategic Homeland…blah blah blah,”

“You mean SHIELD?” Clint exclaims.

“I don’t know, they’re all the same to me,” Mrs Sandusky waves her hand, “This guy’s name was Sitwell or something and he said that Phillip was being taken into a protection program or something,”

Clint’s getting increasingly agitated; unless Mrs Sandusky is finally losing her marbles, this means that Phillip is still alive somewhere. Clint is so relieved he might faint but at the same time he feels that Phillip is a lost to him as he ever was. He has no way of tracking him down. 

“What about this guy who took Phillip?” Clint begins questioning, “What did he look like?”

“Absolutely gorgeous,” Mrs Sandusky says bluntly, Clint pulls a face, “What? I’m old, not dead,” she scoffs, “About six feet, blonde, muscles like an Olympian,”

Clint gets his phone out and searches for the clearest image of Captain America he can find. The Avengers are hardly ever photographed closely, and when they are the images usually disappear fast, “Is this the guy?” Clint demands.

“That’s him,” Mrs Sandusky replies, “I’d know those pecs anywhere,”

Clint is getting increasingly disturbed, “I’ve got to go,” he says quickly before thinking, “Wait, why are you telling me this?” 

“You’ve been hanging around Phillip for years,” she explains, “He’s a nice boy and you’re a good friend, someone needs to make sure he doesn’t just disappear,”

Clint leaves Mrs Sandusky’s apartment and heads downtown. He’s going to do what he and Phillip have discussed hypothetically for years; break into Avengers Tower.

* * * * *

“Mr Stark, we have a security breach on the 82nd floor,” JARVIS interrupts Tony’s work.

“Well do what you do best and deal with it,” Tony says, not appreciating his concentration being broken.

“I believe it may be prudent to examine the security footage for yourself,” JARVIS insists.  
Tony rolls his eyes dramatically, “This better be good,” he turns to the screen that now dominates his holographic display and gets a pleasant but alarming shock, “Please tell me that’s not baby Barton climbing up the air vents,”

“No, sir,” JARVIS replies coolly, “That is Clinton Harrison, eighth grader and winner of the state gymnastics tournament, climbing up the air vents,”

“JARVIS, don’t be sarcastic, you know what I meant,” Tony runs his hands through his hair, this is all getting very complicated, “How the hell did he get in there?”

“It appears he separated himself from a tour group on the observation deck and managed to hack into the ventilation system. I was not alerted to his presence earlier due to the genetic code he shares with the late Clint Barton,”

Tony knew he should have purged Barton and Coulson’s profiles from the system, but he could never bring himself to.

“JARVIS, can you call Natasha down here,” Tony says, “She’s going to want to see this,”

“I have already taken the liberty, sir,”

Natasha appears not long after while Tony is transfixed by the slow but steady pace that the kid is building up. He must have climbed about twenty floors by now.

“Oh god,” Natasha gasps, “How did he get here?”

“You’re guess is as good as mine,” Tony shrugs, “I guess he really wants to see his little friend,” 

“This is a disaster,” Natasha says, sounding genuinely distressed which is strange because not much really distresses Natasha, “We were supposed to keep him out of this,”

“We were supposed to keep Phil out of this too, but we kind of failed there,” Tony says bitterly, thinking about the grief stricken teenager who is wondering around the tower like a ghost, “Oh, look he’s made it to the 97th floor,”

They watch the screen as Clint kicks open a vent, setting off an alarm that Tony quickly silences.

“Hey, I just want to see what he’ll do,” Tony explains when Natasha gives him a look.

Clint tumbles out into a deserted corridor, landing deftly on his feet. He unfastens a baseball bat from his backpack and begins stalking the halls. 

“He’s kind of adorable,” Tony admits. Natasha looks unimpressed by his comment.

Things escalate fast from there; world renowned biochemist Hank Pym just happens to be walking the corridors of the building of which he works when he’s confronted by a small but strong Clint wielding a baseball bat.

“Who are you?” he tries to ask before the kid attacks, leaping onto his back and attempting to choke him with his baseball bat. 

“Oh shit,” Tony says witnessing the event, “He’s got Hank,” 

He and Natasha both jump to their feet and head to the 97th floor to aid Dr Pym who is currently being tackled to the floor by a thirteen year old.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint and Phillip are reunited, if only for a short amount of time. Together they both learn about who they used to be.

By the time Tony and Natasha get to the 97th floor, Clint is long gone and Hank is lying coughing and spluttering on the ground.

“He went thataway,” Hank says pointing down the corridor.

“That was impressive,” Tony says, pulling a mostly unharmed Hank to his feet, “Letting yourself get beaten up by a child, why didn’t you shrink or grow or something?” 

“I didn’t let myself get beaten up,” Hank insists, massaging his throat, “He just leapt out of nowhere, and anyway he’s a kid I didn’t want to hurt him,”

“Very noble of you, I’m sure,” Tony scoffs as they follow in the direction that Clint disappeared in.

Natasha has a frown on her face, that over the past fourteen years, Tony has learnt to interpret as worry. It’s never a good thing when Natasha is worried.

* * * * * 

Phillip is sitting at the kitchen table drinking tea with Pepper. It’s a weird herbal concoction that tastes funny but Pepper seems to enjoy it, so he continues sipping it. Phillip enjoys hanging out with Pepper; she’s calming, more organised than all of the Avengers put together and she talks to him like he’s a grownup. 

“I’m sorry you’ve been locked up here so long,” she tells him, “but this is the safest place to be,”

“When will I be able to leave, or at least make a phone call?” Phillip asks. He has to call Clint and explain what’s going on; he really won’t believe it. But the world outside the tower including Clint thinks that he’s dead.

“I don’t know Phil,” she calls him Phil, everyone around here calls him Phil. Phillip guesses that it’s what they used to call the older version of him. He’s managed to ascertain that they were all pretty close to him; especially Pepper, who keeps giving him this familiar fond look, “Who are you trying to get a hold of?”

Phillip mumbles noncommittally, “Just a friend,” But really Clint’s more than just a friend, he’s the only person Phillip has left in the world now, “So,” he changes the subject rapidly, “I thought you and Mr Stark were together?” he asks.

Pepper’s eyes widen, “Me and Tony?” she exclaims, “Oh no, not for a long time. I’m married,” she pulls a gold chain with a wedding ring attached to it from around her neck, “I don’t wear the ring at work though,”

“I didn’t know you were married,” 

“For about four years,” Pepper smiles, “His name’s Happy, he’s Tony’s chief of security,”

“That’s nice,” Phillip sighs. Pepper looks so happy when she talks about him and for some reason even though he only met her a few days ago; he likes it when Pepper is happy.

* * * * * 

Clint’s running through Avengers Tower, literally kicking in doors looking for Phillip. He hadn’t really planned this mission very well; he’s very much a man of action. He tackled the first person he came across before realising that it was actually Ant Man and releasing him quickly. He just tackled a freaking Avenger, he panics…

He can hear people following him behind because this is the Avengers he’s talking about, he’s only gotten this far because they’ve let him. He runs full tilt into what feels like a wall, falling backwards onto his backside. He looks up to find that it wasn’t a wall but unmistakably Captain America. He yelps and runs back in the other direction but it’s too late. The other direction is blocked by Ant Man, Iron Man and a familiar red headed lady that he eventually places as the woman who was watching him in the park a few years ago. 

“Hey, it’s you,” he demands but the woman remains stony faced, “What’s going on here?”

“Exactly,” Captain America says, “What is going on here? How did he get here?”

“That’s a very good question,” Iron Man says approaching Clint and giving him an appraising frown, “The ventilation system is usually sealed with an incredibly complication locking mechanism, and unless you’ve undergone some kind of training, would you mind telling me how you got in?”

Clint shrugs, he really doesn’t know. There was a complicated computer panel next to the vent he crawled into and inexplicably he just knew how to open it, “Where’s Phillip?” he demands angrily. 

“Oh calm down,” Tony rolls his eyes, “Your little friend’s fine. Who told you he was here?”

“He has a very gossipy neighbour,” Clint says sullenly. Up close Iron Man really isn’t as impressive as he thought he’d be. 

“Now that he’s here…” the red headed lady begins, “He deserves to know what’s going on,”

“I do, I really do,” Clint says getting angrier, he really hates being kept out of the loop, “Because known of this makes any sense,”

“Trust me,” Ant Man sighs, “Things never do around here,”

* * * * * 

Phillip’s still in the kitchen with Pepper, and now Dr Banner, when the rest of the Avengers join them with none other than a distressed looking Clint, who is clutching a baseball bat in his hands and glaring at everyone. That is until he sees Phillip.

He drops the baseball bat (onto Dr Pym’s toes) and rushes forward to give Phillip the biggest hug in existence. He squeezes his chest and actually lifts him off the ground, which is impressive seeing as Phillip is a good few inches taller than Clint. 

“I thought you were dead. I really missed you,” he says putting Phillip down and stepping back to look at him. He has tears in his eyes, which shocks Phillip because Clint never cries. Not even when he backflipped off of the climbing frame and smacked his head on the ground.

“They killed my parents,” Phillip says weakly.

“I know, I’m sorry,” Clint buries his head in Phillip’s shoulder and hugs him again, “But you can come home with me now,”

He pulls away, takes Phillip’s hand and tries to move towards the exit before Steve gets in their way, “Wait, where are you two going,” he says worriedly.

“Phillip can come live with me now,” Clint says matter-of-factly, “We have space, he can share my room,”

“No, Clint,” Steve says, trying not to sound patronising, “It’s not safe for Phillip out there, in fact it might not be safe for either of you,”

Clint gets really angry now, which is actually quite a scary thing to witness because he has a frown that can turn people to stone, “I don’t know what you’re talking about and I don’t care,” he says icily, “But she’s been following me around,” he says pointing towards Natasha, “And you guys are supposed to be the good guys and I can look after Phillip just fine thanks,”

“You’ve been following him around?” Dr Banner interrupts, looking at Natasha disapprovingly, “I thought we agreed to stay away,”

“It was just a few times,” Natasha admits, “I was just checking in,”

Steve also looks sheepish, “I might have also coached Phil’s little league softball team for a while a few years ago,” 

Phillip frowns, remembering the team his parents made him join when he was six. He was terrible at the game but he vaguely remembered the tall, broad coach who kept telling him to keep trying. Strangely enough, he remembers insisting to his dad that his coach looked exactly like Captain America, “Oh yeah,” he says, “That’s kind of creepy,”

“Tony started up a college fund for both of them,” Pepper bursts out.

“Pepper!” Tony exclaims, “You snitch!”

“What are you guys talking about?” Clint yells, “How do you know us?”

“It’s difficult to explain,” Dr Banner begins, “It’s a long story,”

“Fine then,” Clint says, grabbing Phillip’s hand again and dragging him away, “We’re leaving, you guys suck,” he sulks.

And with that he marches Phillip out of the room. 

“Ouch,” Hank says as they leave, “That hurt,”

* * * * * 

Clint leads Phillip out to the living area before realising he doesn’t exactly know the way out, “Where’s the damn elevator?” he grumbles.

“It’s over there,” Phillip says pointing, “But, Clint, you really have to listen to what they say,”

Clint cuts him off, “No, I don’t. We’re just going to go home. My mom’s making meatloaf tonight and she’ll be happy to see you,”

He stomps over to the elevator and jabs at the button impatiently.

“It’s really important,” Phillip insists, “We can’t go yet,”

Clint continues pressing the button, refusing to meet Phillip’s eye. But when the doors finally open, the elevator isn’t empty. There’s an imposing man standing in the centre, wearing a long black coat and an eye patch. Clint jumps back in surprise because he was not expecting that. 

“No matter what age you two are,” he says staring down at them with his only eye, “you’re always a pain in my ass,”

* * * * * 

The rest of the day is even more tiring and confusing. So apparently Clint used to be Hawkeye, he used to be an Avenger. And Phillip was some kind of secret agent. Clint didn’t believe in reincarnation or anything like that, but coming from the Director of SHIELD it kind of makes sense. 

Nick Fury sits them down in the Avengers’ living room and explains what happened. He tells them about how they were, well not born, but came into existence. He tells them about how he personally put them up for adoption and vetted their new families. He tells them about the security breach which led to Phillip’s details being leaked to HYDRA. This makes Clint furious because they should have taken better care of his friend.

“The one thing I can’t figure out is how you two found each other,” he tells them with what could loosely be interpreted as a fond glare, “Stark and Dr Banner seem to think that it’s possible that there may be some residual memory transfer,”

Clint shoots Phillip a quick look at this. It explains something; that feeling he got the first time he saw Phillip. The way he felt that he just had to talk to him. It was probably because they’d met before, even though neither of them can remember. 

Fury finishes by asking if they have any questions. They look at each and shake their heads; strangely now that everything is out in the open, it seems to make sense. Fury leaves, but not before laying a hand on Phillip’s shoulder and promising to get the people who killed his parents.

Phillip looks down at his shoes and begins blinking rapidly as Fury leaves. Clint doesn’t know what to say to him, but now definitely doesn’t feel like the time to go confessing his feelings to him. 

* * * * * 

Phillip wakes up the next morning with Clint’s foot in poking him in the small of his back. They’re sharing the huge bed in Phillip’s room, they’ve shared before so Phillip has long ago learnt that Clint sleeps like a starfish, spreading out and usually finding a way to sleep on top of him. 

Phillip dislodges him slightly, making Clint mumble something and turn over onto his stomach. Phillip swings his legs off of the bed and sits there for a moment, feeling empty. His parents are gone, his life is not his own and he currently lives in the same building as Captain America, who he can’t find the courage to look in the eye. 

But at least he has Clint; Clint who launched a bizarrely effective attack on Avengers Tower, just to get to him. He’s his best friend in the whole world. 

There’s a gentle tap on the door, “Come in,” Phillip calls out.

It’s Dr Banner, closely followed by Stark, “There’s a slight issue,” Banner says awkwardly.

Stark take a less than tactful approach, “Hey, kid,” he says shaking Clint awake, “Wake up. Your folks reported you missing to the police, if you don’t go home now we’re all going to get arrested for child abduction,”

Clint goes from fast asleep to wide awake in a millisecond, “Oh shit, I totally forgot,” 

“Where did you tell them you were going?” Phillip asks. 

“I didn’t,” Clint says throwing himself out of bed, “I just ditched school,” 

Phillip remains stony faced, “That was dumb,”

“Well, I was looking for you,” Clint says defensively pulling his jeans on clumsily and almost tumbling to the fall, “And it’s OK, when you come back with me they won’t be mad,”

“Clint, Phil can’t come with you,” Banner explains patiently, “HYDRA is still out looking for him and people thinking that Phil is dead is probably for the best right now,”

Clint stops getting dressed, his face falling. This was clearly not what he had in mind, “But that’s not fair,” he says lamely.

“If I go with you, something might happen to your family,” Phil says, he knew that this wasn’t going to end simply with him being welcomed into the Harrison family.

“OK then, I’ll stay here,” Clint says simply.

Phillip sighs, “You don’t want to do that,” he shakes his head, before adding quietly not wanting to embarrass Clint in front of Iron Man, “You’d miss your mom,”

Clint seems to realise this, “But I can come back, right?” he asks Tony, “I can come back to visit right?”

“I don’t think I can stop you, can I?” Tony smiles making Clint look a little happier.

“And when you find those HYDRA guys, Phillip can go wherever he wants?” Clint continues.

“We’re working on it now,” Banner tells him. 

Clint seems a little happier about leaving Phillip in their care and he’s reassured even more when Tony hands over a top of line StarkPhone with instructions to call whenever he wants. Phillip and Pepper walk Clint down to the street and put him into a taxi. It feels like Clint is trying to say something to him as they hug each other goodbye again.

“What is it?” Phillip asks.

“Nothing,” Clint says, sounding a little pained, “You’re going to be OK,” he tells Phillip, “And I’ll come back and see you tomorrow,”

“You have school,” Phillip informs him, making Clint roll his eyes.

“I won’t go,”

“You have to go,” Phillip tells him.

“You’re just saying that because you’ve never been,” Clint sighs, “And what am I going to tell my parents about where I’ve been?”

“Tell them that you were drinking and holding up drug stores,” Phillip says with a straight face. 

“I don’t think they’re going to believe that,” Clint laughs, “I’ll think of something,” He hugs Phillip again before getting in the cab and sticks his head out of the window as it drives away, “Tell Ant Man I’m sorry for jumping him, and for dropping a baseball bat on his foot,” he yells. He doesn’t take his eyes off Phillip until the car disappears into the New York traffic. 

Phillip goes back to a smiling Pepper who had been watching the pair of them like they were the most adorable thing in the world. Phillip gives her an unimpressive look which makes her laugh.

“I’m sorry,” she apologises, clasping her hands, “You two just look so cute together. How long has it been?”

“Huh?” Phillip asks in surprise, “We’ve been best friends since we were ten,”

“Just best friends?” Pepper sounds unconvinced. 

“Yeah,” Phillip insists. 

“OK then,” Pepper smiles as they go back inside, “Listen Phil, I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” she turns to him as they get back into the private elevator that will take them to the room upstairs, “Seeing as you’re going to be staying here for a while, I was wondering if you’d like to live with me and Happy in our apartment,”

Phillip looks at her in shock, “Live with you?”

“It’s just things can get a bit hectic in the upstairs apartments, people coming and going at all hours,” Pepper explains, “And we live just a few floors down. We’d both really like it if you came to stay,” Pepper concludes, looking hopeful.

“Yeah, I would,” Phillip smiles faintly, “Thank you,”

* * * * *

When Clint gets home his parents are understandably furious, the cops aren’t happy either. His father spies him getting out of the cab and wrenches open the door to yell at him before pulling him into a violent hug and promptly crying into his hair. He’s ushered into the house, apologising as he goes, where his mother is waiting, looking distraught and older than she normally does. Its then he feels terrible.

Now that Clint knows where he comes from, he’s even more grateful for the parents he has. When he was younger and had the adoption talk with his parents, they told him that if he wanted to find his birth parents when he was older they’d support him. The original Clint Barton’s parents are long dead, so there’s no one to track down and technically he was created by the Tesseract and not actually born. 

Clint rushes into his mother’s arms and tells her he’s sorry, that he didn’t mean to be away all night. She just tells him she’s happy he’s not dead. He guesses that they both thought that maybe he’d done something to himself after losing Phillip. 

He feels even worse when his sisters bound down the stairs, looking tearful and relieved. 

A few days later and Clint hasn’t really been pressed to explain where he was the whole night. He hasn’t had the chance to see Phillip again but he calls him whenever he can. He hides the StarkPhone underneath his mattress because he’s not sure he can explain where he got such an expensive phone from. 

All in all, things are looking better, better but different. Phillip isn’t dead anymore, but over the phone he sounds distant and lost. He’s living in a strange place, with some really strange people, and he doesn’t have his parents anymore. Clint tries to comfort him the best he can but he really wishes that he could be with him. Phillip is living with Ms Potts and her husband now. They sound like nice people; Phillip seems to really get on with Pepper and Happy is teaching him how to box. 

One evening, after yet another conversation with Phillip, Clint goes down for dinner with his family.

“You look happy,” his mother comments, “Have a nice day at school?”

Clint didn’t, he hates school. School is awful because Phillip’s not there and now Clint knows where he came from, he can’t comprehend spending his days sitting in math class and listening to Ryan Bellamy tell rude jokes. 

“It was OK,” Clint shrugs, helping himself to lasagne.

Jeanie, his older sister who just started community college, glares at him across the table, “What have you done?” she asks suspiciously. 

Clint may be able to lie to his parents but some reason both of his sisters can see straight through him, “Nothing,” he says defensively. 

“Mom!” she cries, “Clint’s acting weird,”

“You’re weird,” Clint replies quickly.

“He’s got that weird smile,” his other sister, Annie, notices, “Mom, I think Clint’s gone mad,”

“You look suspiciously happy,” Jeanie agrees. 

“Shut up,” he tells the pair of them.

“Clint, leave your sisters alone,” his mom snaps, not listening to their conversation. 

Clint really wishes he was an Avenger and not just an eighth grader whose sisters gang up on him all the time.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint and Phillip have developed a little routine but Clint's finding it harder and harder to lie to his parents. Meanwhile, the Avengers continue investigating what HYDRA could want with Phillip.

The bell at the end of the day rings and Clint launches himself from his seat out of his English class. Ms Ellis tells him to slow down, Ryan Bellamy attempts to invite him to out to the arcade but Clint has somewhere to go. It takes him about twenty minutes to get across town to Avengers Tower and he practically runs to the nearest subway station. He hasn’t seen Phillip in a few days because his mom has been insisting he comes home straight away since the incident where he went missing for a whole night. But today he’s told her he’s got gymnastics practice and then dinner with his classmates afterwards; he should be able to stay at the tower until about eight o’clock. 

He’s been at the tower enough times for security to recognise him and only glance at the security pass that Tony gave him (he still can’t believe that he refers to the Avengers by their first names now). He makes his way up in the elevator, pausing for a moment to straighten his hair and smarten up his clothes a little. He’s not trying to impress anyone; he just doesn’t want Phillip to think he’s a slob. 

He still hasn’t managed to tell Phillip how he feels yet. The timing hasn’t seemed right. Phillip just lost his parents, he needs his friend to be here for him not continuously becoming inexplicably hypnotised by his blue eyes. Clint feels like a creep.

“JARVIS,” Clint asks the AI, “Where’s Phillip,”

“Mr Coulson is in the main living area, watching television,” JARVIS replies, coolly as ever. 

Sure enough that’s where Phillip is; lying across the couch watching bad television, concentrating very hard on eating some Oreos. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be doing schoolwork?” Clint asks. The jealousy he feels about Phillip never having gone to school has never gone away. But Clint knows that if he was home schooled, he’d never get anything done. Phillip learns stuff without being told to. 

“I’m done,” Phillip says, taking apart an Oreo, “I spent the afternoon being taught physics by Tony and Bruce, my brain hurts,”

Clint sits down on the couch, moving Phillip’s feet to make space and helping himself to some Oreos, “I never know what either of them is talking about,” he agrees. 

“How was school?” Phillip asks eagerly. Since he started living in the tower, Phillip hasn’t been able to leave much; HYDRA is still on the lookout for him. So asks about Clint’s life, desperate know everything he does at school. 

“Same old, same old,” Clint sighs, “Got hit in the face by a dodge ball during gym, forgot to do my math homework, nearly fell asleep during history and read Much Ado About Nothing in English,”

“That’s nice,” Phillip smiles, “How’s your family?”

Clint rolls his eye, “OK so, get this,” he begins explaining the current drama in his house, “Annie’s moving in with that Mark guy, and dad’s furious but he doesn’t know what mom knows that Annie’s pregnant,”

“You’re going to be an uncle?” Phillip smiles. 

“Looks like,” Clint sighs, “But I’m not supposed to know but I overheard mom and Annie talking about it,”

Phillip smiles wistfully and Clint begins to feel bad about talking about his family so much, “How’s it going around here?”

Phillip shrugs, “It’s good, everyone’s kind of busy though,” 

Clint looks around; the building is kind of quiet, “Have they made any progress?” he asks quietly. It wasn’t so long ago that Captain America himself promised Phillip that they’d manage to find the people who killed his parents. Not much seems to have been done so far. 

Phillip looks sad, “They won’t tell me much,” he sighs, “But they know where the HYDRA is based but they just don’t know what information they want from me,” he rubs his hands over his face, “I don’t think I could tell them anyway because I really don’t know anything about this Coulson guy,” 

Clint pauses for a moment, “Maybe you do, but you just don’t know it yet,” he says pensively, “When I was breaking into the tower, I didn’t know how to do until I did it,”

“I guess so,” Phillip shrugs. 

Clint has spent a lot of time thinking about Phil Coulson and Clint Barton; about who they were and what they meant to each other. The Avengers haven’t told them anything about them but Clint’s managed to guess a few things from the way they react to them. 

For instance, he knows that Barton must have been close to Natasha. She apparently kept tabs on him growing up, although he only saw her once, and she keeps looking at him in this weird way. Like she’s happy he’s here but sad that he’s not who he’s supposed to be. 

He also thinks that the way that Steve reacts to Phillip is just bizarre. The expression on his face whenever he talks to him can only be described as guilt. It’s something to do with Steve not getting to Phillip in time to save his parents but there’s also something more, involving Phil Coulson. Whatever it is it upsets Phillip that his hero can’t seem to be around him for too long and it’s part of the reason that Clint is yet to give Phillip the trading cards he was supposed to give him on his birthday. 

They’ve just begun a small fight over the remote control when Tony Stark blitzes in, “Boys, boys, stop fighting,” he says pulling the remote out of both of their hands, “I have enough TV screens for one each,”

At first Clint was disappointed when he met Tony because he had been a fan of Iron Man since he was a kid. But once you get past the bad first impression, Tony is actually a pretty cool guy. He likes to have people around; he seems to collect them. All the Avengers live in the tower; Steve, Bruce, Natasha, Dr Pym. As well as Pepper, Happy and a host of other top scientists and engineers who use the Stark Enterprises research and development facilities. 

He also doesn’t seem to mind having Clint and Phillip hanging around, probably because half the time Tony seems to act like a teenager himself. They spend the rest of the evening playing on Tony’s state of the art games console, eating pizza and drinking soda until Pepper comes in to break up the party.

Happy drives Clint home, getting him there faster than he would have done if he were getting the subway. He has Happy drop him off a few streets away because his mom would be suspicious about the overly nice car.

He needn’t have worried about that because a couple of days later he comes home to find his mom standing in his room holding the StarkPhone that Tony gave him and that he hid down the side of the bed.

“Oh, hi mom,” he says trying to sound casual, “Whatcha doing?”

“I was making your bed, something you never do,” she says pointedly, “When I found this. Where did you get it from? Are you dealing drugs?”

Clint’s a little bowled over by this, “What?” he frowns.

“I watch TV Clint,” she says, her voice getting a little frantic, “And I know I should be getting suspicious when my son brings home an expensive phone and hides it under his bed,”

“Mom, I’m not dealing drugs,” Clint says exasperatedly. 

She looks like she believes him, “Did you meet someone?” she says going off on a different theory, “Someone online?”

“Oh for God’s sake,” Clint rolls his eyes, “Mom, what are you talking about?”

Her voice softens slightly, “Did you meet someone online? Someone older? Someone who buys you expensive gifts?”

“Mom!” Clint sounds outraged, “I am not being molested by someone I met online!”

“Well I don’t know, Clint!” she says desperately, “I know things have been different around her what with Jeanie going to college and Annie…”

“Getting knocked up?” 

She rolls her eyes, “Yes,” she says pointedly, “And I know what happened to Phillip has been really hard on you…”

Clint can’t meet her eyes because he’s been lying to her for weeks. Phillip isn’t dead and he knows it’s been hard on his mom because she liked Phillip too and it scares her that someone just broke into the Carters’ house and murdered them. 

“But you never talk to me anymore,” she finishes sadly, “I know you don’t think so, but you’re still my baby.

Clint grumbles, because he’s nearly fourteen. He then realises that he’s got to think of a suitable lie really quickly because he’s not going to be able to brush this off.

“I got the phone because I got an internship,” he says quickly, “At Stark Enterprises, I go there after school sometimes,” 

His mom looks a little shocked. Even Clint is astounded at what comes out of his mouth.

“Really?” she says, unconvinced, “I don’t mean to offend you, honey, but you’re terrible at anything to do with science,”

Just because it’s true, it doesn’t mean that Clint isn’t offended by it coming from his own mother, “Thanks mom,” he says grumpily, “but it’s in the security department,”

“What does the security department want with a thirteen year old,” Clint’s mom isn’t dumb. This is going to take some manoeuvring.

“Fine,” Clint says, pretending to get riled up, “If you don’t believe me, call up my supervisor. His name is Mr Hogan and he’ll tell you all about it,”

His mom calls his bluff. Clint just hopes that Happy will catch on quickly.

* * * * * 

Phillip’s life takes on a bit of a routine. The apartment he shares with Happy and Pepper is of course fantastic, it’s impeccably furnished with both fine arts and top of the range electronics. The first day he moved in Pepper apologetically showed him the spare room which was decorated impersonally but came back the next day with various things she thought he might like. Phillip thanked her but remained unenthusiastic until Happy came home one day with a cardboard box full of things from his own room, including photos of his parents, his Captain America action figure and embarrassingly enough Timmy the Stuffed Rabbit that he’d had since he was first adopted. 

It’s these things that help him settle in but it’s Happy and Pepper who make it feel like it could be home. He knows that Pepper was close to the old Phil Coulson but she doesn’t treat him like her old friend, she acts more like his mom than anything. Phillip doesn’t resent her for this, like people may think he would after losing his own mother, in fact he appreciates it. Happy is pleased to invite him into their home, he seems to enjoy having Phillip around; he teaches him how to box and shows him Tony’s extensive collection of cars.

He asks Pepper why she and Happy don’t have children. She sadly replies that they’ve tried but it hasn’t happened for them yet. Phillip thinks it’s a shame because they’d make great parents.

They’re sitting down to dinner one evening, which is something they try to do every night but Pepper practically runs Stark Enterprises and Happy is Tony’s bodyguard which means his hours are unpredictable, when Happy’s phone rings.

“Not at the dinner table,” Pepper says simply as Happy apologetically looks at who’s calling.

“It’s Clint,” Happy frowns and takes the call. 

Phillip can just about hear what Clint’s saying.

“Hello Mr Hogan,” Clint sound unusually formal, “It’s Clint Harrison, my mom just wants to talk to you about the internship I’ve been doing in the security department,”

Happy frowns in confusion but Phillip fights back laughter. Mrs Harrison was always good at finding out when her son was hiding something. He signals to Happy to play along.

“Uh, sure Clint. I can talk to your mom,” Happy says bemusedly. 

The phone is passed on and Phillip can hear Mrs Harrison’s voice, she doesn’t sound pleased, “Mr Hogan, is it?” Phillip is glad that Mrs Harrison’s never been mad at him because she can ferocious.

“Yes, ma’am,” Happy says, “Your son’s been doing some excellent work for us at Stark Enterprises,”

“Yes, well, he hasn’t told me anything about it,” she says, “He’s thirteen, isn’t he supposed to have permission to do something like this?”

It looks like Happy’s panicking for a moment, “Well, we have a permission slip for Clint on file. That’ll be something you have to take up with Clint,”

“Well thank you,” Mrs Harrison sounds slightly more placated, “I suppose I am glad that Clint’s doing something with himself after school,”

“Anything that keeps them occupied,” Happy jokes back. After a few more pleasantries are exchanged, Happy hangs up the phone and looks sheepish, “Oops,”

“I don’t feel right about lying to his mother,” Pepper says.

“We can’t tell her though,” Phillip shrugs.

“I know but it doesn’t feel right,” Pepper sighs.

“Why would a thirteen year old be doing an internship with the security department,” Happy frowns to himself. 

“It wasn’t a great lie,” Phillip agrees.

* * * * * 

“What have you found out?” Steve asks as JARVIS lets him into Tony’s workshop. Usually he avoids the place because whenever he’s there something either catches fire or explodes. Tony assures him that this is a normal occurrence in the workshop, but honestly Steve gets enough explosions when he’s on missions. 

Bruce and Tony are gathered around one of the holographic displays that Steve can never get to work, they’re talking amongst themselves with worried looks on their faces that tell Steve that whatever they’ve found it can’t be good. 

“We’ve be analysing what data was stolen during the attack on SHIELD,” Bruce begins, “To try and see what they could need Phil for,”

“And the inevitable bad news is?” Steve asks.

“That when Coulson was alive, the only person who had higher clearance than him was Fury,” Tony interjects, “So, if it were at all possible for Little Phil to remember, he could be used to unlock any number of SHIELD’s secrets,”

“And we’ve already established that there is some definite residual memory transfer,” Bruce states, “How else would he and Clint managed to meet up again?” 

“OK, I get it,” Steve sighs, “We don’t know what HYDRA could want with Phil but how can we stop them even trying to get their hands on him,”

“HYDRA is a decades old organisation…” Bruce continues.

“Yeah, I know Bruce,” Steve says sternly, “I was there,”

“Sorry,” Bruce shrugs, “Basically, nobody’s managed to take them down yet and unless you want to launch a full scale attack on their New York headquarters…”

“I’d do that. If I thought it would help,” Steve says. He owes Phil that much, not only did he fail to save his parents but he it’s almost certainly his fault that Coulson even died in the first place. 

“That’s enough of your tortuous Cap guilt,” Tony says obviously reading Steve exactly. It’s been fourteen years and Steve’s loathe to say it but Tony probably knows him better than anyone.

“Alright then,” Steve continues getting frustrated, “So Phil’s safe in the tower for now. I guess he just has to stay here the rest of his life,”

“No,” Bruce sighs, “We just have to continue investigating HYDRA’s current plan to do something awful,”

Steve doesn’t feel assured at all. He really prefers it when the bad guys just make their move, he hates waiting around.

* * * * * 

One weekend Clint’s at the tower with Phillip, he’s feeling bored because despite not going to school Phillip still assigns himself homework and he’s insisting on finishing it before they watch a movie together. Clint decides to occupy himself by exploring the tower, because so far he’s only seen Phillip’s apartment, the main living area and kitchen and Tony’s workplace which he once allowed them into with the specific instructions not to touch anything, Clint spent most of the time in there being poked at by Butterfingers and eventually doused with a fire extinguisher by Dum-E. 

Clint finds himself on a firing range, reduced to pretending to fire at the targets because, of course, the guns are all locked up. He soon gets bored though and starts trying to various lockers that line the back wall. He finds noise cancelling headphones, a pack of chewing gum and other odds and ends, nothing out of the ordinary until he gets to the final locker. 

It’s a bow and arrow. It’s his bow and arrow. 

Clint puts out a cautious hand to touch it and nearly jumps out of his skin when Natasha sneaks up on him, “Have you ever used one of those?” she asks. 

Clint draws his hand back because he shouldn’t be touching; it’s not really his, “Nope,” he says, “Never touched one,”

Natasha picks it up and holds it out to him, “Have a try,” she tells him.

Honestly, Clint’s scared to because until now he’s never really had to deal with the fact that used to be someone else because the bow seems like such an integral part of Clint Barton, of Hawkeye. But another part of him just easily takes the bow from Natasha and feels the strangely familiar weight. 

“It’s really light,” he comments.

“It’s pretty high tech,” Natasha tells him, her face is as usual unreadable, “Stark made it for him,” Clint thinks that once upon a time the other Clint used to be the closest thing to a friend Natasha ever had, “Let me show you,”

Natasha leads him over to the range, adjusts his position as best she can and stands back. Clint stands there for a moment, before relaxing. It feels right; it’s about the most comfortable he’s felt in his whole life. 

“How does that feel?” Natasha asks him. 

“It’s good,” Clint replies, “I want to try firing an arrow,” 

The first one he fires goes about six feet wide which is embarrassing. Clint pretends not to notice to brief look of disappointment that crosses Natasha’s face and carries on. Gradually, with each arrow he fires he gets closer until the seventh when he actually hits the bulls eye.

“This is pretty cool,” he grins and to his surprise Natasha actually smiles back, genuinely. She leaves without another word, patting him on the back as she goes.

* * * * * 

Bruce is waiting outside the range when Natasha leaves Clint in there. She walks straight past him, intentionally ignoring him, but he follows after her.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” he says, following a few steps behind.

“Done what Bruce?” she asks straight faced.

“Barton’s bow is kept locked up in the SHIELD armoury,” Bruce tells her, “The only way it could’ve got there was if somebody moved it,”

“Isn’t that strange,” she replies.

“I know you moved it,” Bruce tells her, sounding angry now. Not Hulk level angry, more like mildly frustrated, “You wanted Clint to pick it up,”

“So what if I did,” Natasha snaps, “He’s good at it, he enjoys it,” 

“We don’t know enough about what Phillip and Clint are capable of remembering,” Bruce explains, “We don’t know what level of damage remembering their past lives could bring,”

Natasha stops walking and turns to face Bruce, “What are you talking about?” she asks dangerously.

“Imagine having the memory of two lives in your head,” Bruce says, “Clint’s a different person now. He has a different family, he grew up differently, and he’s still a kid. Do you really want him turning into Barton?” 

Natasha is dangerously quiet. Clint Barton wasn’t a bad man, far from it, but he led a hard life. But this young Clint in front of her is so carefree; he likes playing video games and drinking cherry soda, he complains about schoolwork and his sisters and he hides his love for Iron Man but Natasha’s seen his branded pencil case.

But she can’t deny how happy he looked holding the bow again.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phillip feels like he's going crazy cooped up in the tower. But when he persuades Clint to go outside with him, they're caught in a HYDRA trap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of your posts have been really nice to read. I have a few more chapters of this story planned out. As well as a couple of ideas for more stories in this universe. I'm going to try and keep up with posting every couple of days, but my schedules is a bit hectic.

Phillip is going out of his mind. He hasn’t left the tower in weeks; it’s strange to think that it’s been three months since his parents died. He’s getting restless and edgy, he recognises the feeling from when he was home schooled by his dad, they used to solve it by going on day trips together to museums, to lectures or just to the park. But there’s none of that here. 

He doesn’t want to sound ungrateful but the Avengers are generally too busy to spend any time with him. And why shouldn’t they be, they’re superheroes. 

Clint visits as often as he can without his parents getting even more suspicious but he still spends a lot of time alone and indoors. He’s dying to be outside. 

That’s pretty much where all the trouble begins.

Clint visits one day after school and finds Phillip standing on the balcony, staring hard at the ground all those stories below and willing it to be closer. 

“What’s up Phillip?” he asks casually joining him on the balcony. Phillip likes how relaxed Clint is around him; since his parents died everyone’s been treating him like he might start crying at any moment, which to be fair he still might. 

“I’m so bored Clint,” he moans. 

Clint looks worried, like he thinks he might be the one boring him, “Uh…OK, do you want to play video games?”

“No,” Phillip sighs, “I don’t want to play video games, I don’t want to watch a movie, I don’t want to do yoga…”

Phillip’s actually been getting pretty into yoga. He does a session everyday with Bruce but the one time he invited Clint along they spent the whole time giggling, almost driving Bruce to dangerous distraction. 

“What do you want to do then?” Clint asks, probably willing to do whatever Phillip says.

“I want to go out,” Phillip says, gesturing to the city below them, “Not for long, but I just want to go outside,”

“But Steve said that it wasn’t safe,” Clint says earnestly.

“I know,” Phillip sighs again, “But I still want to go out,”

Clint remains silent for a little while, like he’s thinking very hard about something, “We could go out,” he eventually says, “Not far, just to the comic book store,”

Phillip looks up at this, “For like twenty minutes, right?” 

“We wouldn’t stay long,” Clint shrugs, “Like in and out,”

“We’d practically run,” Phillip agrees. 

Now they’re both agreed, there’s not going back. So, they both get there stuff together and head out of the building. Nobody stops them because the tower is full of literally hundreds of people, so nobody notices them. 

When Phillip steps out into the outdoors, he can’t help by beam.

* * * * * 

Clint is such a sucker for Phillip’s smile. He would do anything to see it. 

He knows it’s a stupid idea for them to go out without telling anyone when there are HYDRA agents probably still out there looking for them. Clint pushes that thought to the back of his mind; they’re not even sure that they are still looking for Phillip and besides Clint has his compactible bow in his backpack and he’s been getting pretty good at using it.

They practically bound down the sidewalk to the comic book store, laughing and joking with each other as they go. Clint hasn’t seen Phillip this happy in ages. 

They get to the comic book store and spend a while talking about new issues. They’re both complete nerds at heart so some strong opinions are bandied about. Clint notices how both of them seem to stay away from the Avengers merchandise. It doesn’t seem as cool now that they know them. 

After a while, Clint finds himself with his nose in a book and by the time he looks up Phillip looking at a different shelf. And that’s when Clint spots the guy. 

He clearly out of place; he’s a tall guy with a leather jacket and huge great scar down the side of his face whereas the rest of the clientele are around Clint and Phillip’s age. He’s also staring at Phillip intently but trying very hard not to be obvious. 

Clint’s on his guard and quick glance at Phillip tells him that he is as well. A quick flick of the eyes tells Clint that Phillip knows he’s being watched. Clint to grab Phillip and run as fast as he can back to the tower but he knows they’ll have no chance of out running this guy, and the possible others he has with him. 

Before Clint can even think about what to do next, the guy makes his move, going over to Phillip and putting his hand of his shoulder. 

“Hey, its Phillip isn’t it?” he asks, he’s trying to get on his good side, not wanting to cause a scene, “I used to know your parents,” 

That last comment is a sly threat, which makes Phillip mad.

“Go away,” he says through gritted teeth, “I’m not here alone,” he warns.

The man chuckles, “Yeah, we know your little buddy’s here,” he says, tightening his grip on Phillip’s shoulder, “And if you come with us, we won’t kill him,”

Clint watches as Phillip’s face pales and his body slumps in defeat. Clint watches horrified as Phillip lets himself be led out of the store with only a sad look back at Clint. Clint watches and does nothing, and he feels like a coward. 

Phillip needs him, a bold part of his brain screams. Do something. 

And Clint does. It’s another feeling like he got before he broke into the tower, like he knew what he was doing only just as he was doing it. It takes one fluid movement for him to unpack his bow and another for him to ready an arrow. He releases and it finds its target, the HYDRA agent’s shoulder. The guy curses a blue streak but isn’t badly hurt, he still has the presence of mind to grab Phillip across the chest and pull out his gun. He fires several wild shots in Clint’s direction. They hit and shatter the glass front of the comic book store and the panic begins immediately. People start screaming and running in all directions. 

Clint takes cover behind a car, listening as what sounds like a van screeches into earshot. Clint has only moments before the HYDRA agent takes Phillip into the van and then Clint won’t be able to follow on foot. He can’t explain why he did what does next; maybe it’s some kind of memory of a former life or maybe he actually listens and understands when Tony talks so proudly about his tech. 

He quickly whips out the StarkPhone from his pocket and takes off the back, pulling apart the components until he locates the GPS chip. Deftly he attaches it to his next arrow and prays to God that he makes the next shot. 

He straightens up and fires. Phillip is being manhandled into the back of a van by two HYDRA agents, one of who is still cursing and bleeding. Clint doesn’t aim for them but instead embeds the arrow into the bumper of the car, GPS chip and all.

Clint doesn’t have time to be proud of his quick thinking because the van slams close and Phillip is whisked far away. 

Clint feels really sick. 

* * * * *

Steve is trying to read when the thunder begins to roll. He knows by now that Thor is about to arrive and judging by the lightning that strikes the tower, he’s not happy. Steve forgets about having a quiet afternoon and goes to the open area on top of the tower to find out what has got the Asgardian so riled up, it’s been a few months since they’ve seen him.

“What’s going on Thor?” Steve asks the moment he sees Thor’s furiously distressed face.

“I have received word from Heimdall that my Lady Jane is missing,” Thor says, lightning still crackling around him.

No matter how many times Tony has asked Dr Jane Foster refuses to move her lab into the tower. She claims she likes her own space so still remains in the same lab she worked in all those years ago when she first discovered the Bifrost landing site. 

“We haven’t heard from her,” Steve says, “What happened?”

“Her laboratory is in ruins but there is no sign of who could have taken her,” Thor continues. He and Jane stayed together through a lot of stormy weather, quite literally really. 

Before Steve can even suggest that they assemble the Avengers, Tony appears holding a phone away from his ear, “It’s Clint,” he tells them, looking pale, “Some HYDRA guys picked up Phil when they went out together, he put a GPS chip on them and I’m tracking them now,” He frowns like he’s only just seen Thor , “Thor? What are you doing here?”

Steve doesn’t like coincidences and this seems like a big one. It seems like HYDRA has finally shown their hand.

* * * * * 

The back of the van has no windows so Phillip has no idea where he’s being taken. It’s not far though because eventually the van stops abruptly and the doors are thrown open. There are several other agents there who pull Phillip out of the van, they don’t hurt him but that’s probably just because he’s not putting up much of a fight, yet. 

They take him into a warehouse, which makes Phillip think about dozens of different episodes of a myriad of crappy television shows. Standing in the middle of the empty warehouse is clearly the guy in charge.

“Agent Coulson,” he says with a wide but alarming grin, “It’s been a long time, you look different from the last time we met,”

Phillip sighs, “You know I don’t know who you are right?” he says, “I mean I know you’re HYDRA,” he tells them looking around at the other agents, “but I always thought you guys wore those goofy green uniforms,”

The guy rolls his eyes, “Just in the comics kid,” he says, “They don’t really portray very well,”

“I’m disappointed,” Phillip pouts. 

“We’re not really here to chat about comic books Phil,” the agents says, he’s trying to sound friendly which just disturbs Phillip even more, “I think the Avengers have told you that we want something from you, you see there’s a SHIELD cold storage facility a few miles from here,”

“Uh-huh,” Phillip says, playing along.

“A facility that only a few people have access to,” the agent says, “You’re one of them,”

“You would have thought that they would have revoked Agent Coulson’s security access when he died,” Phillip thinks out loud, “Never mind, I can’t help you I don’t know anything about any cold storage facility,”

“Well, that’s a shame,” the agents says, once again with the fake hand of friendship, “Because if you don’t tell us, do you know what we’ll do?”

“I think you’ll probably kill me,” Phillip sighs, he’s not stupid, “But I also think that the Avengers will probably get to you before that,”

“We’ll see,” the agent smiles, “But if you thought that that little GPS chip your friend put on our van would help you, you’re wrong,”

Phillip frowns; he didn’t see Clint do that. He only saw the first arrow that embedded itself in a HYDRA agent’s shoulder. 

“So, we’ll give you a little while to think about it,” the agent says, calling forward two more agents, “Take our young guest to the holding cell, he can keep Dr Foster company,”

“Alright,” Phillip says he’s led away, “But I’m telling you, I don’t know anything. This is going to be really embarrassing for you…”

* * * * * 

Clint calls in what happened to the tower but doesn’t do what Steve tells him to do down the phone. 

“Stay where you are, Clint,” Steve practically yells down the phone, “SHIELD agents are coming to pick you up and take you back to the tower,”

Yeah, Clint’s not going to wait around. Partially because he was just involved in a shooting at a comic book store, and mostly because he’s not going to hang around when Phillip just got abducted by HYDRA. 

He hilariously has to follow the GPS tracking device by hailing a cab. Less hilariously he has to ditch the cab when he realising he has no money, apologising to the driver as he runs away, but by this point the flash dot that symbolises where the van is has come to halt and he’s able to walk the rest of the way. The van is parked outside a warehouse, which makes Clint roll his eyes because…come on…really? 

Just as he creeps closer, the flashing dot deactivates. Somebody probably found out what he did which means they’ll be getting ready to move Phillip before the Avengers rain down on them. There’s a helicopter a few feet away from the warehouse which is being refuelled by a pilot. 

Clint knows what he has to do next.

* * * * * 

Phillip is escorted to the holding cell by an overly cheerful agent who actually introduces himself as Bob and chats to him the entire way. So far Phillip isn’t overly impressed with the proficiency of HYDRA’s agents. 

Bob opens the cell, which is more like a storage cupboard, and ushers him inside. A woman is already inside, sitting perched on a crate and looking very displeased. When the door opens, she jumps up and begins shouting, “Have you idiots have any idea how important the work is you dragged me away from! I don’t have time for being abducted, you morons,”

Bob mumbles his apologies and pushes Phillip inside before shutting the door. As he hears the door lock, Phillip turns to the woman.

“Hi,” he says uncomfortably.

“And who are you supposed to be?” she says, sounding stressed.

“I’m Phillip. Phillip Carter,” he tells her. 

Her face falls with recognition, “Oh, it’s you” she says, “I hoped they wouldn’t drag you into this, I’m Jane Foster by the way,”

Phillip’s heard her name before. She’s the renowned physicist who discovered who discovered an Einstein-Rosen bridge in the middle of New Mexico, “Don’t worry the Avengers are on their way,” he tells them certainly.

“Is that so?” she replies, “Well, I wish they’d hurry up,”

Phillip sighs in agreement and sits down on another crate, “My friend Clint told them where we were,”

“Your friend Clint?” Jane asks, “That’s good. HYDRA didn’t get hold of him, did they?” 

“No, Clint wouldn’t let himself get caught,” Phillip says quickly, “It’s my fault that we were even out. I persuaded him to come with me,”

Jane shakes her head, “No, it’s not your fault. The way I heard it, HYDRA was getting ready to storm the tower. I wasn’t sure what they wanted, but I guess it was you,”

Phillip puts his face in his hands. He can’t quite believe that there’s all this fuss over something he can’t even remember.

* * * * * 

Not long afterwards, both Phillip and Jane are collected again by Bob and a couple of other HYDRA agents. They’re escorted out of the warehouse where a helicopter is starting up. The guy in charge is standing out there with the same threatening-friendly smile as before. 

“So, Phillip, have you been thinking about what’s going to happen next,” he asks. 

“I’m telling you, I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,” Phillip said calmly, he’s actually quite astounded by how he’s not panicking, “Are we going in the helicopter,”

“That’s right,” the guy says. 

“Awesome, I’ve never been in a helicopter before,” Phillip nods. Jane actually snorts with laughter next to him. 

“Ah…lucky,” Bob mutters under his breath, unfortunately not quietly enough for the leader, “I want to go on the helicopter,”

“Get out of here Bob,” he spits, “And take them with you,” he says pointing to the assembled agents. 

The rest of the HYDRA agents peel away and get back into the van. It’s just the guy in charge, a couple of other agents and the man that Clint shot with an arrow, who’s looking a little blood stained and pissed off but alive. With a sharp nod, the leader directs him to lead Phillip and Jane into the helicopter. 

Only once they’re settled, does Phillip look towards the back of the cabin. He’s not surprised to see Clint crouched behind the seats, smirking and looking very pleased with himself. Phillip shakes his head and shoots him a disapproving look, but smiles all the same. 

* * * * * 

The helicopter ride isn’t long, but Phillip enjoys it all the same. The view’s pretty good and now that he knows that Clint is in the back, he’s not nervous. He doesn’t know why because why can the arrival of one thirteen year old be more assuring than the Avengers?

The helicopter lands on a seemingly ordinary office building in the outskirts of the city. As soon as the doors are opened the HYDRA agents leap out, the leader assigns the guy Clint shot as the person to keep an eye on Phillip and Jane. The others go on ahead and they soon hear gunshots, Jane flinches but Phillip stays cool. 

“I guess SHIELD isn’t what it used to be?” the guy says with a cruel smirk. 

Phillip’s frown deepens but he regulates his breathing and stays calm. He’s suddenly grateful for the yoga sessions he had with Bruce. He’s beginning to get worried now that the helicopter engines have shut down that Clint might be heard from his position behind the seats; it’s not the best hiding place.

“I wouldn’t know about that,” Phillip replies coolly. 

“It’s weird,” the guy continues, “Fourteen years ago, the name Phil Coulson would strike fear into the hearts of HYDRA agents. Now look at you, you’re just a kid. I should kill you now and save us the trouble…”

“Don’t you dare!” Jane says lurching forwards suddenly. The guy pushes her squarely in the chest, knocking her back and covers them both with his gun.

“Nobody moves,” he yells. 

Phillip and Jane remain stock still. Clint does not. 

He launches out of his hiding place, catching the guy completely off guard. He grabs hold of the gun and Phillip thinks momentarily that he’s about to see his best friend shot but he manages to knock the unsteady agent out of the still open door. Phillip and Jane follow suit out of the helicopter but before they can help, there’s a gunshot.

Phillip feels himself lose all of his previously remarkable cool.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phillip discovers what HYDRA need him for and both of the boys experience some memories from their past lives.

“Clint? Clint? Clint!” 

Clint’s ears are ringing but he can just about make out someone yelling his name. There’s a probably dead HYDRA agent lying on top of him and the gunshot seems to have temporarily deafened him. Suddenly, the weight on his chest his lifted and he can see Phillip’s horrified face.

He can’t make out what Phillip is saying but he seems worried.

“…you…shot?” he just about hears.

“What?” he finds himself yelling back, as his ears gradually stop ringing.

“I said, did you get shot?” Phillip repeats.

Clint actually has to check, he pats his body down just to make sure, “No, I’m OK,” he smiles. Phillip punches him in the chest, “Ow! What was that for?”

“You’re an idiot, Clint Harrison,” Phillip yells at him, his eyes seem to be watering a bit, “He had a huge gun!” 

Dr Foster grabs them both under the elbow and pulls them apart, “Boys, stop fighting,” she scolds them, “We’re not safe yet,”

Clint looks down at the body of the HYDRA agent he killed and then up to Phillip. He then throws up. The next thing he knows his wretching onto the ground and Phillip is patting his back sympathetically. 

“Oh shit, Phillip,” he gasps, “I think I killed that guy,”

“Clint, it’s alright,” Phillip says quietly, “He had a gun, he would have killed us all,”

“He would have killed you,” Clint corrects. When he moved, he had no thought of saving Dr Foster or even saving himself. He just saw someone pointing a gun at Phillip and launched into action. 

“Guys, we’ve got to get moving,” Dr Foster says, she’s looking around on the roof, probably searching for another way down, “This is ridiculous, there’s no fire escape,”

Clint’s about to suggest that he fly the helicopter, for some reason he feels like he might be able to, when the door down to the rest of the building swings open. Two more HYDRA agents appear, glancing at the body of their comrade and the suddenly appeared Clint, before raising their weapons. 

Clint’s said it before and he’ll say it again. He’s not really that great at thinking ahead.

* * * * * 

Jane, Clint and Phillip are all escorted downstairs at gun point. Phillip tries to avert his eyes from the dead SHIELD agents that fell as HYDRA broke into the facility. Despite looking like an ordinary office building, inside its all white walls and security doors that HYDRA seems to have blasted their way through.

The guy in charge is standing in the middle of the chaos and carnage, “Well, well, well,” he says, “What do we have here?” he says, indicating Clint, “Your little friend decided to come along too, isn’t that nice,” He looks Clint also briefly before smiling again, “This might work out better actually,” he says.

He walks over to Phillip and puts an arm over his shoulder, Clint looks just about ready to snap again but Phillip shoots him a warning look. There’s no use in them all getting killed, they just have to stall until the Avengers get here.

“Now listen, Phil” the man says, “You see this vault,” he says indicating a thick looking security door in the wall, “What we want is in this vault, and we need your password, your retinal scan, your hand print and a piece of your DNA,” he says with a smile, plucking a hair off of Phillip’s head, “See that’s not so hard, one down,”

He goes over to the vault, inserting Phillip’s hair into a small slot. The locking mechanism whirrs and one of the four red lights that are positioned over the door, turns green. 

“Easy,” the man says lightly, “Now, if you decide not to do what I tell you…” he points his gun directly at Clint’s head, “I’m going to kill your friend,”

Even as Jane tries to push Clint behind her, he looks unafraid. But Phillip is terrified, he’s lost enough this year, he can’t lose Clint. 

“OK, OK,” Phillip tells the man, “I’ll do it,”

“Phillip, no,” Clint bursts out, “You don’t know what’s in there,”

“I know what I’m doing,” Phillip says, stepping forward to place his palm on the handprint reader.

“I think perhaps young Clint should wait in the other room,” the man says to one of his lackeys, “He’s providing a bit of a distraction to Phil,”

Phillip watches as Clint is dragged away, yelling as he goes, “It’s Phillip, you son of a bitch!” his cursing voice echoes down the corridor.

* * * * * 

Clint kicks up a huge fuss as he’s taken away from Phillip. He feels so damn furious that he would quite happily destroy all of HYDRA if he could. He’s not going to let anything happen to Phil, not again. 

Clint slows down and when one of his HYDRA escorts nudges him with his gun, he freaking loses it. What happens next is pretty much a blur, he can only assume it has something to do with the other Clint, he’s definitely channelling Barton

When he regains his senses, his HYDRA guards are unconscious and he’s holding both of their guns. He yelps and drops them, because what happened on the roof has only served to convince him that he doesn’t like guns. 

He wants to rush back to Phillip and take out the other HYDRA guards but he knows that a thirteen year old kid taking out two grown men is fluke and if he goes back upstairs, someone might get killed. 

His best option is to track down the Avengers.

* * * * * 

“What do you mean you lost the signal, Stark?” Steve demands of Tony.

They’re all in the quinjet; Steve, Tony, Thor, Natasha and Bruce (they seem to have forgotten Hank, Bruce would remark that that seems to happen a lot but now doesn’t seem like the time).

“I mean someone has clearly discovered the GPS chip and completely smooshed it,” Tony snaps back. Steve and Tony seem to communicate through arguing so Bruce isn’t worried, yet, “Clint just got it from a standard StarkPhone, I’m surprised he even knew what to do with it,”

“You shouldn’t underestimate him,” Natasha adds from the pilot seat, “Either of them actually,”

Bruce is just about to say something, when he feels a vibrating in his jacket pocket. It’s his phone. 

“Seriously Bruce,” Tony says, raising his eyebrows, “You’re going to talk to Betty now,”

“It’s not Betty,” Bruce tells him, which is a surprise because the only person who ever really calls him is Betty, “Hello?” he asks uncertainly into the phone.

“Dr Banner?” Clint’s small voice asks over an unclear line. 

“Clint? Is that you?” Bruce says, putting one finger in his ear to block out Steve and Tony’s bickering, “You’re back at the tower, right?” 

“Um…no,” Clint replies sheepishly, “Can you track my call? Because I’m where Phillip and HYDRA is, they also have Dr Foster,”

Bruce gives a long suffering sigh, “Of course you are,” he beckons Tony towards him, “Tony, it’s Clint, you need to trace this call,”

“Oh, he better be at the tower Bruce,” Steve says severely. 

“He’s not,” Bruce says with a shrug.

“Of course he’s not,” Natasha says to herself, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world to her.

“Tell him he’s in big trouble,” Steve says shaking his head.

“You’re in big trouble Clint,” Bruce relays the message.

“I’m not sorry,” Clint replies quickly.

“I know, just stay out of sight and we’ll get there as soon as we can,” Bruce tells him.

Having teenagers around is just exhausting.

* * * * * 

It takes a while for the locking mechanism to accept Phillip’s handprint because for some reason it’s confused that Coulson’s hand is suddenly a lot smaller. As Phillip continuously tries to get the computer to see that it is the right handprint, the man keeps up a volley of threats; that he’ll get his men to kill Clint, that he’ll kill Jane right in front of him. Phillip remains cool though. 

The next thing is his retinal scan. He actually has to get one of the HYDRA agents to find him a box to stand on because the scanner really wasn’t made for a teenager who is yet to have a growth spurt. Once that is done, it’s just the password left.

Phillip has no clue what it could be. 

“What are you waiting for Phil?” the man asks, grabbing Jane around the arm, pulling her closer and aiming his gun at her neck. To her credit, Jane doesn’t even flinch. 

“Divine intervention apparently because I have absolutely no clue what the password could be,” Phillip snaps back. 

“This is going to get messy Phil,” the man taunts, “I’m going to kill this nice lady in front of you,”

Phillip keeps his face passive, “You know a few weeks ago I came home to find that HYDRA had murdered my parents,” he tells the man, “Not much is going to shock me I’m afraid,”

“How about if I tell my men to take apart your little friend, piece by piece,” the man tells him, losing the pretence of friendliness. 

“Just you try it,” Phillip tells him, because he doubts Clint will go down without a fight, “I just don’t think it’s really going to help me remember,”

The man throws Jane to one side and grabs Phillip around the neck, pressing the gun against his temple, “I’m really not in the mood for this,” he spat. 

“Is it because the Avengers are coming?” Phillip says seriously, “Because you guys don’t really stand a chance,”

The man loses his cool and clubs Phillip across the head with the butt of his gun. Phillip is knocked to the floor and immediately feels blood streaking down his face. He feels woozy but he can still sense someone leaning over him and a voice shouting. It’s Jane, who’s shouting at the man and pressing her hand to the side of his head. 

Besides the wooziness, Phillip feels something else. De je vu is the only way he can really describe it, he has definitely been here before. 

The man and Jane are yelling at each other, Jane is screaming furiously at him. Phillip uses this cover to get to his feet and claw his way up to the locking mechanism. 

“Agent Coulson, protocol seven, passcode eight-nine-epsilon-beta,” he gasps.

The door unlocks with a hiss and opens slightly. Phillip doesn’t know how he reacts so quickly but he somehow manages to grab hold of Jane’s arm, pull her into the vault and seal the door behind them, locking it again. 

“Ha ha,” he says weakly before passing out. 

* * * * * 

Clint makes the call from the front desk of the building that acts as a cover for the SHIELD facility. He speaks to Bruce and tries to ignore the sinking feeling he gets at having disappointed Captain America. But they’ll be here soon and…oh crap, that’s a whole buttload of HYDRA soldiers pouring out of the back of that van, he thinks. 

The same guys the leader told to clear off at the warehouse have just arrived, apparently traffic was bad. All the same they pile and head towards the door, guarding the entrance. They’re clearly prepared for the Avengers; they won’t be able to stop them but they’ll slow them down enough to allow the vault upstairs to be opened, the others escape with whatever they were searching for and for Phillip and Jane to be probably killed. 

Clint still has his bow and arrows. The guys he knocked out confiscated them from him but he quickly runs back to collect them.

Within moments all of the HYDRA agents but one is felled with an arrow to a limb. Clint knows he doesn’t have it in him to kill anyone who wasn’t directly attacking him, so he goes for injuring. The last guy gets lucky because Clint’s run out of arrows. 

Bob of HYDRA looks at him in alarm and Clint schools his face into his best ‘I’m a badass don’t mess with me’ look. Bob backs away. He actually pretty much flees. 

* * * * * 

Jane looks relieved when Phillip finally regains consciousness. She slowly helps him to his feet and begins waving her fingers in front of his face.

“Can you see how many fingers I’m holding up?” she asks, sounding panicked. 

“Three, Jane,” Phillip says, trying to bat her away. 

“You’re not going to be sick, are you?” she asks.

“No, I’m fine,” Phillip says, not entirely sure he has complete control over his stomach but he wants to find out what this was all about.

He begins looking around the vault. It’s not much bigger than a cupboard but it’s full of crates and files. He picks up the nearest and opens it. The vault is quite dark but if he holds the folder up to the faint light in the ceiling, he can just about read it.

“It’s says something about phase two,” he says squinting, “What’s phase two?”

Jane looks momentarily horrified, “They were supposed to have destroyed everything,” she gasps quietly before explaining, “You know about the Tesseract and Loki, right?”

Phillip nods. He looked up the circumstances of the death of his former self. He knows all about what happened, including some classified information that he probably shouldn’t have had read, but Tony is pretty free with the computer access he gives to Phillip. 

“Before the Battle in Manhattan SHIELD and the WSC was developing weaponry based on the Tesseract’s energy,” Jane explains, “It was discontinued but I guess this is where they stored some of the prototypes,”

“That’s why they took you,” Phillip concludes, “You and Dr Selvig are the two people who know most the Tesseract…”

“Without being Iron Man or the Hulk,” Jane continues. 

“So, now we’re basically trapped in a cupboard with a lot of research and development information on a dangerous weapon that the HYDRA agents outside are trying to get,” Phillip groans, putting down the folder. 

“On the plus side, they can’t get in here,” Jane says hopefully.

“Yeah…but I’m kind of hungry,” Phillip says sadly.

* * * * * 

“I wish our job was this easy every time,” Tony says as they get out the quinjet and observe the pained HYDRA agents lying in front of the cold storage building. Those who could limp away already have but most are still on the ground. 

“Clint?” Natasha calls out worriedly. She’s seen the arrows littering the ground and Clint isn’t Barton, he’s just a kid, not much more than a little boy. 

Clint pokes his head up from behind the front desk, looking like he’s almost about to cry but he’s desperately trying to hide it, “What took you guys so long?” he demands, “Get upstairs now! Phillip needs you,” he yells. 

It doesn’t take them long to take out the rest of the HYDRA agents littered throughout the building. Most of them lay down the weapons at the first glimpse of Captain America, Thor and Iron Man strolling through the halls but the last guy puts up a fight. The man’s pounding on the vault doors and cursing fiercely. 

“You want to lay down your weapons, sir?” Steve asks, always polite, even to HYDRA agents. 

The guy refuses at first but a repulsor blast to the chest soon puts a stop to that. 

“Where’s Phil?” Steve asks. The danger seems to be over now but there’s no sign of him or Jane. 

Thor is the first to guess, he steps forward and raps on the vault door with Mjolnir, “Phillip, is my Lady Jane in there with you?” he calls through the door. 

The doors opens with a hiss, revealing a relieved Jane and a bloodied but alive Phillip. 

Thor beams as Jane goes into his arms, “Phillip, once again I owe you a debt,” he tells Phillip who staggers out of the vault. 

“Whatever,” he replies tiredly, “Actually you can repay me two ways,”

“Anything,” Thor promises.

“Well, for one could you destroy everything in that vault,” Phillip says pointing behind, “And for another could I have a sandwich or something, I’m really hungry,” 

“Whatever you like Phil,” Steve tells him with a smile, “Just as soon as you stop bleeding everywhere, let’s get your head looked at,”

* * * * * 

Clint waits anxiously downstairs with Bruce and Natasha, while the others go and find Clint. Natasha had to actually physically hold him back because he wanted to go back up there with them. A SHIELD clean-up has already arrived to take away the injured HYDRA agents and investigate the security breach. 

“You do know you were told to go back to the tower, right?” Natasha says. 

“I know,” Clint says, “But what would you’ve done?”

“Exactly what you did,” she admits, “Only with more style and professionalism,”

Clint shoots her a withering look that makes her smile. 

It takes longer than Clint would have liked for them to come back downstairs. Phillip is leaning on one of Steve’s arms and has blood staining one side of his face and his shirt, which nearly makes Clint’s heart stop. 

He completely embarrasses them both by launching forward and hugging Phillip tightly around the middle. He then kisses him. 

It’s Clint’s first kiss, and he’s also fairly certain it’s Phillip’s first too. It’s really not a great one. Phillip is caught off guard and immediately tenses up, so it’s just Clint pressing his lips hard against his. Clint breaks it off quickly. The others are pretending not to notice, but Phillip looks like he’s going into shook and Clint’s pretty sure he’s turned so bright red that his cheeks can be seen from space. 

“Um…are you OK,” he mumbles, deciding that if he acts cool enough the other will think that it was just a shared hallucination.

“I’m fine,” Phillip practically squeaks, “Thank you…you were awesome… a total ninja,” 

Clint assumes that he is not talking about the kiss. 

“Come on let’s get moving,” Tony says, thankfully breaking the awkwardness, “Pepper’s worried sick and as usual I’ll bet Clint hasn’t told his parents where he is,”

Clint follows them outside, sticking close to Phillip but all the while really desperately wanting to dig a hole and live in it for the rest of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a couple more chapters left in this story. But a sequel will definitely follow.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint nearly dies of embarrassment before receiving some words of encouragement from Natasha. And the World Security Council is definitely up to something...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know. Two chapters in one day but I have work on Monday and I didn't think I could wait to update. This is the end of this story though and I thought you guys would want to see Phillip and Clint get their acts together.

After being debrief by SHIELD and refusing to leave Phillip’s side until he’s cleared by medical, Clint doesn’t get home until ten thirty, an hour after his weekend curfew. He tells his mom he was at Ryan Bellamy’s house, Ryan will back him up without even really knowing why, but he’s still grounded. 

Grounded. He’s grounded. He’s freaking Hawkeye, he took out over a dozen HYDRA agents today and he’s just been sent to his room by his mom. Ridiculous. 

Clint’s actually pretty grateful for the privacy because it gives him time to bury his face in his pillow and inwardly moan about the hideous awkwardness that was his first kiss. He’d always assumed that anything he felt for Phillip was reciprocated, but clearly he was wrong. He really hopes that Phillip won’t hate him now.

Thanks to his grounding it’s a while before he goes back to the tower. Instead, he goes to school, does his homework, attends gymnastics club; just like a normal kid. 

But things are different now. He sleepwalks through his everyday life because now he’s haunted by the ghost of a man who died before he was born. 

Clint Barton. 

The man’s helped him in so many different ways; he wouldn’t have been able to take out those HYDRA guards without him or string even string a bow let alone fire an arrow. But at the same time he keeps getting these familiar feelings about strange things. 

He suddenly feels incredibly overwhelmed when he sees a poster for a circus. He has two sisters but he occasionally finds himself thinking about a brother he doesn’t have. It’s the shadow of a good man who did bad things in his life that keeps haunting him. 

But most of all, he thinks of Phillip. Phillip feels like the only constant in both of his lives and even if Phillip doesn’t care for him the way Clint cares for him, he has to see him. 

So the next Friday, after school, Clint makes the now familiar journey to Avengers Tower. He gets in the elevator and starts the ride up to the floors Happy, Pepper and Phillip share when Natasha stops the elevator and gets in. She gives him a look which makes Clint feel incredibly bad about something, but he’s not sure what.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Clint asks defensively. 

Natasha doesn’t say anything, just stares at him harder, if that’s even possible. 

“Seriously, you’re freaking me out,” Clint continues, “I’m not him. I know he was your best friend or whatever, but I’m not him,”

“I know,” Natasha replies coolly, “But I’ll be damned if I see you make the same mistakes he did,” 

“I never know what you’re talking about,” Clint sighs.

“Yes, you do,” Natasha says, reaching out and touching a button. The elevator screeches to a halt, “Clint Barton loved Phil Coulson, but he never told him how he felt,”

Clint’s brow furrows. He had looked at Clint Barton, to find out who he was but he never knew about any kind of relationship he had with Agent Coulson, “He did?” 

“He did and he was too scared to do anything about it, until it was too late,” Natasha says with genuine sadness, “Phil died, Clint never recovered and was killed a few months later. And I lost my two best friends,”

Clint stares sheepishly at his shoes.

“And I know that you’re only thirteen years old,” Natasha explains, “And maybe it won’t last forever but right now you love Phillip. You should tell him because you shouldn’t waste time when you’re not sure how much you have left,” 

Natasha looks so uncharacteristically vulnerable that Clint moves forward to hug her around the middle. It takes her a moment but she responds.

“I’m guessing that if Phillip’s anything like Phil, he’s needs to have these things spelled out for him,” Natasha tells him comfortingly. 

“Well I thought kissing him in front of everyone was pretty obvious,” Clint replies. 

“I know but you probably just caught him by surprise,” Natasha says, breaking apart the hug and looking him in the eye, “He’s been moping around here all week without you,”

That does make Clint feel a little more self-assured. 

* * * * * 

Phillip is being debriefed by the Director of SHIELD himself. He doesn’t get why people find him so scary; he has an eye patch, big deal. 

“SHIELD and the World Security Council owes you an apology,” Director Fury tells him.

They’re in the Avengers conference room with both Tony and Steve listening in on the conversation, they both don’t really seem to trust Fury, even more so now after finding out that the phase two prototypes weren’t destroyed as promised. 

“They do,” Phillip agrees, “But if you actually say sorry I might actually be sick on you, because it doesn’t feel like it’s enough right now,”

Phillip lost both his parents and was nearly killed by HYDRA because of the World Security Council’s desire to make weapons that cause even more damage. Phillip’s just glad that the prototypes were destroyed by Thor in a spectacular lightning show. 

“It seems to me that SHIELD is being curtailed by the World Security Council a lot recently,” Tony says, leaning back in his seat, looking unimpressed. 

“This shouldn’t have happened Director,” Steve agrees. 

“Well, it did,” Phillip tells them both, “And nobody can change it now,”

Director Fury gets up to leave but lingers for a moment to give Phillip an appraising look, “You’re handling this pretty damn well,” he says as Phillip’s face remains placid, “And you know how to handle yourself in a crisis, maybe we’ll see you at SHIELD one day,”

“Maybe,” Phillip shrugs nonchalantly. 

Steve makes an outraged noise, “Over my dead body,” he says indignantly.

“SHIELD’s pulled a lot of crap over the years,” Tony says, trying to remain calm, “But I thought we’d all agreed on the status of the phase two prototypes,” 

“They were deactivated and in cold storage,” Fury says, raising his voice, “And it was not my call to make,”

“We should have known about it,” Tony insists. 

Fury has clearly given up on arguing, instead he goes over to Phillip and holds out his hand to shake, Phillip does because it wouldn’t be polite to refuse, “Look us up in a few years,” Fury tells him. 

Phillip hadn’t really thought about any career opportunities yet, because he isn’t even fifteen yet. But anything that he thought he might like to be, a lawyer like his mom or a historian like his dad, seems so farfetched and distant now. 

When Fury leaves, Steve looks over at him worriedly, “Are you OK, Phil?” he says. 

“I’m fine,” Phillip says quietly, he scratches at the four stitches on the side of his head. The doctor told him that it might leave a small scar but he doesn’t really care. 

“Clint said you didn’t like being called Phil, is that right?” Steve asks apologetically. 

Phillip frowns slightly and thinks about it, “I don’t mind, call me what you want,”

“Speaking of names,” Tony interrupts, “We need to discuss yours. We thought it was safest if you remained dead, so I’ve been creating you a new identity,” Tony turns on a computer screen that takes up one wall, it shows a birth certificate with several spaces missing, “So pick a new name,”

Steve sympathetically puts a hand on his shoulder, “You can keep Phillip if you like,”

“I think it might be a little confusing if I change my first name,” he agrees before thinking for a moment, “Can I have Coulson?”

Tony face looks briefly sad, but then he smiles, “Yeah, that might be a good idea,” he says quietly.

“It is a name that strikes fear into the heart of HYDRA agents around the world,” Steve nods. 

Tony fills in his new birth certificate. Phillip thinks it’s funny that Phillip Coulson dies and creates Phillip Carter, but then Phillip Carter dies and becomes Phillip Coulson. 

“I also thought that I should put down Pepper and Happy as your guardians,” Tony says, “Unless you wanted to go anywhere else,”

Phillip doesn’t have any close family left; both of his parents were only children. He could go live with the Harrisons but that might leave them open to more danger. Phillip’s found that he’s really begun to like living with Happy and Pepper. If he can’t have his parents, they’re definitely the next best thing. 

“I want to stay,” Phillip nods, “Do they want me stay?”

“Don’t be stupid Phil,” Tony laughs, “Of course they want you to stay,” he finishes filling in several fake forms and certificates which officially bring Phillip Coulson back into existence, “There we go Phillip James Coulson, who just happens to live with his foster parents in the Avengers Tower,”

Phillip feels a certain sense of satisfaction that everything is all official now. Everything in his life seems to be straightening out for once, except for one thing. 

* * * * * 

Clint knocks on the door of Phillip’s apartment, and waits nervously until Pepper opens it.

“Hey Clint,” she says happily, “Phil just had to go upstairs to talk to Director Fury, he’ll be down in a minute,”

She lets him wait in Phillip’s room until he gets back. It’s reassuringly neat and tidy, just like Clint would have expected from Phillip. The bed is made, his closet is arranged neatly, the pens and pencil on his desk are colour order and the Captain America action figure is sitting pride of place on his bedside table.

Clint sits on Phillip’s bed and fiddles with the action figure, he remembers the hours and hours they used to spend playing together, not knowing about who they used to be. He used to think the idea of fighting with HYDRA was fun. 

Clint bites his lip and blinks on awful lot. It’s been a difficult few months. 

He’s ridiculously relieved when Phillip finally shows up. He stands up and puts the Captain America figure down. He smiles because Phillip is smiling, he looks pleased to see him which means that he isn’t upset about the whole kissing thing. 

“Hey,” Phillip says happily, “I missed you this week,”

“I got grounded,” Clint says quickly, he doesn’t want Phillip to think that he was avoiding him, “I couldn’t really explain the reason way I was out past my curfew,”

“Sorry about that,” Phillip says uncomfortably. 

“Don’t be sorry, I’m just glad that you’re alright,” Clint says with conviction. He finally notices the stiches above Phillip’s eyebrow, “Your head is messed up,”

“Tony says that scars are sexy,” Phillip says with a straight face which makes Clint burst into laughter because not a lot of people know that Phillip is hilarious, he’s the king of dead pan delivery. 

They both start laughing, sitting down on the bed together, “Things have been really weird lately,” Phillip finally manages to say. 

“Tell me about it,” Clint agrees, still chuckling slightly. 

“But…you’ve been great,” Phillip tells him sincerely, “I was really…really miserable,” his voice is beginning to quake, “And you’ve been my best friend,”

Clint can’t stand it because Phillip’s about to cry. Clint hasn’t been a good friend, Phillip’s been going through the worst time of his life and Clint still can’t stop thinking about what it’s like to kiss him, “No, I haven’t,” Clint says, going to his backpack, “I suck,” he pulls out the Captain America cards he found for Phillip’s birthday, “I got you these, ages ago, I just couldn’t find a good time to give them to you,”

Phillip wipes his eyes on his hand and takes the cards, “Thanks, I haven’t got these,” he says with a watery smile. Clint starts crying himself and Phillip looks really worried, “Clint, what’s wrong?” 

“I’m really sorry I kissed you the other day,” Clint sobs. He’s so dejected and embarrassed because never going to want to kiss him again because he’s crying like a baby.

“Why are you apologising for that?” Phillip tries not to laugh. 

“Because I jumped you and you were bleeding and you didn’t like it,” Clint gasps. 

“Of course I liked it,” Phillip says properly laughing again. 

“Phillip, don’t laugh at me,” Clint says, beginning to feel a little outraged. 

“I’m sorry,” he sniggers, not stopping, “I’m sorry, you just caught me by surprise,” he smiles, “I’ve never been kissed before,”

“Me neither,” Clint replies. 

Phillip chooses that moment to rectify that. He leans forward and presses a much softer kiss to Clint’s lips. It’s kind of weird for both of them because that both in the midst of a laughing-crying jag but when they break apart, both of them seemed to have calmed down. 

“Do you want to be my boyfriend?” Clint asks very fast. 

“OK,” Phillip responds. 

God, this is so easy, Clint thinks, wondering why he didn’t do anything before now. They hold hands on the bed for a little while longer, before kissing again. It’s longer this time, there’s tongue. It’s definitely the best moment of Clint’s life. 

They’re just beginning to develop some semblance of technique when Pepper enters the room without knocking, “Everything OK in here boys…oh,” she says once she sees them, “Sorry,” she says awkwardly, shutting the door behind her. 

“Oops,” Phillip laughs. 

Pepper reopens the door, “I’m going to leave the door open,” she tells them, “Behave yourselves,” she warns. 

“What does she think we’re going to do?” Clint sighs, “It took me months to even kiss you,”

Phillip sighs and rolls his eyes. He gets up to find a place to his new Captain America cards, pride of place on his desk. Clint feels pretty pleased about that. 

“What do you want to do now?” Phillip asks. 

“I don’t know,” Clint sighs, “I’m pretty tired, let’s just watch some cartoons,”

Phillip agrees and they go and sit in the living area together, holding hands and watching TV. Pepper sits at her desk, occasionally looking over at them and making noises about how cute they are. 

Phillip rolls his eyes but smiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and thanks for all your fantastic comments. The second story is in the works. Phillip and Clint start high school. And maybe Phillip and Clint make some new friends. And just perhaps one of these friends is called Peter Parker. I'm just saying...stay tuned.


End file.
